Abstract

Current meat production methods have many health, environmental and other problems associated with them like high risk of infectious animal diseases, nutrition-related diseases, resource use and environmental pollution through green house gas emissions, decrease in the fresh water supply, erosion and subsequent habitat and biodiversity loss (Asner et al., 2004; Savadogo et al., 2007) besides the use of farm animals and non-sustainable meat supply. A new approach to produce meat and thereby reducing these risks is probably feasible with existing tissue engineering techniques and has been proposed as a humane, safe and environmentally beneficial alternative to slaughtered animal flesh. The growing demand for meat and the shrinking resources available to produce it by current methods also demand a new sustainable production system. In vitro meat production system ensures sustainable production of a new chemically safe and disease free meat besides reducing the animal suffering significantly. This review discusses the requirements that need to be met to increase the feasibility of in vitro meat production, which includes finding an appropriate stem cell source, their growth inside a bioreactor and providing essential cues for proliferation and differentiation.

Key words: In vitro meat, tissue engineering, future meat substitute.