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Cultured meat is meat obtained through in vitro tissue culture of cells. It is gaining attention as a potential substitute for traditional meat, which is obtained from animal bodies, because of several factors. Cultured meat has less impact on global environment compared to livestock farming. It does not require extensive land as animal husbandry does, and it enables strict hygiene control. In recent years, research on cultured meat has been conducted worldwide, resulting in achievements such as hamburgers made from collected muscle cells of cattle and chicken nuggets made using chicken cells. However, these were minced-meat-like tissues made by randomly collecting cells from muscles. Our group is conducting research for in vitro creation of three-dimensional structures of muscular tissue, aiming to produce cultured steak meat with the original texture of meat. In 2019, we presented the first diced-steak-form cultured meat with muscle fibers aligned in the same direction. In addition, in March 2022, we conducted the first tasting at a university in Japan with the approval of the university’s research ethics committee.
 
Every time I issued a press release or was interviewed about cultured meat, I was asked: “I’m interested, so could you tell me more about it?” Sometimes, I received requests like, “Is there a book that explains the background?” Although I had written many specialized books and explanatory articles, I wondered if I could publish a book easily understandable by the general public. It was then that I was introduced to Ms. Saruyama by my joint researcher Prof. Aiko Hibino. Together, I and Prof. Hibino co-wrote this book. I covered the background, advanced technology, and prospective issues of cultured meat research, while Prof. Hibino addressed future issues such as social acceptability. We both aimed to write in a manner that is easy to understand.
 
Amid the drastic changes occurring around the world, such as climate change, COVID-19 pandemic, and the crisis in Ukraine, food security is gaining more and more importance. Cultured meat is one option, alongside plant-based meat and insect food, to address this issue. However, it also has the potential to become the ultimate craft meat—not limited to beef, but also various other meats such as pork, poultry meat, fish, and shrimp—that can be tailored to each person’s physical condition and taste, and can be produced and consumed locally. Notably, cultured meat is a new technology and is not likely to be socially accepted immediately. In addition to technical challenges, there are numerous tasks, such as cultivating a new food culture that can be socially accepted and creating regulations that will facilitate safe consumption. Careful progress in accordance with social values is necessary for a new technology like cultured meat to establish itself as a food culture. I hope this book will create an opportunity for more people to become interested and participate in the research and industry of this field.
 

(Written by TAKEUCHI Shoji, Professor, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology / 2024)