Plant-based and cell-based approaches to meat production
Open accessAbstract
Advances in farming technology and intensification of animal agriculture increase the cost-efficiency and production volume of meat. Thus, in developed nations, meat is relatively inexpensive and accessible. While beneficial for consumer satisfaction, intensive meat production inflicts negative externalities on public health, the environment and animal welfare. In response, groups within academia and industry are working to improve the sensory characteristics of plant-based meat and pursuing nascent approaches through cellular agriculture methodology (i.e., cell-based meat). Here we detail the benefits and challenges of plant-based and cell-based meat alternatives with regard to production efficiency, product characteristics and impact categories.
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Significant progress has been made in recent years, and signals point to commercialization of cell-based meat soon.
“Significant progress has been made in recent years, and signals point to commercialization soon.39”
From Technologies and perspectives for achieving carbon neutrality (2021) · cites this paper as [39]
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Technologies and perspectives for achieving carbon neutrality
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- Authors
- Rubio, N. R., Xiang, N., & Kaplan, D. L.
- Affiliations
- Tufts University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Xiang, Ning
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2020-12-08
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 6276-6276
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7722853
- OpenAlex
- W3111353905
- Cited by
- 606
- References
- 82
- Citations by year
- 2026: 81 · 2025: 123 · 2024: 147 · 2023: 118 · 2022: 96 · 2021: 38 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 5.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | Office of Extramural Research, National Institutes of Health (P41EB027062)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Animal Science and Zoology › Meat and Animal Product Quality
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Insect Science › Insect Utilization and Effects
- Keywords
- plant-based meat, cultured meat, cellular agriculture, meat substitutes, animal welfare, environmental impact, sensory properties, production efficiency
- MeSH terms
- Agriculture, Animal Welfare, Biotechnology, Consumer Behavior, Food Technology, Meat Products, Plant Proteins, Diet, Vegetarian, Cell Culture Techniques, Foods, Specialized
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