Shaping the Future Plate: Exploring the Safety Concerns of Cultivated and Conventional Meat Production
TL;DR
This review evaluates the safety of CM consumption, comparing its risks and benefits to those of traditional meat, and highlights the necessity for rigorous safety assessments and regulatory frameworks to ensure CM’s safe integration into the food supply.
Abstract
Summary In response to the growing global population and the unsustainable nature of current livestock agriculture, cultivated meat (CM) offers a promising alternative protein source. CM, produced through advanced tissue engineering techniques, aims to mitigate health, ethical, and environmental issues associated with conventional meat. This review evaluates the safety of CM consumption, comparing its risks and benefits to those of traditional meat. CM presents numerous advantages, including the reduction of zoonotic diseases and antibiotic resistance. However, it also introduces new challenges, such as genetic modification concerns and whether the CM can cause any kind of disease of affluence. The review highlights the necessity for rigorous safety assessments and regulatory frameworks to ensure CM’s safe integration into the food supply. Additionally, CM production’s lower environmental impact, such as low greenhouse gas emissions or reduced land and water use make it a viable solution to global food security and environmental sustainability.