The first mouthful of “cultivated” meat is both remarkable and dull. In a homely kitchen at the California headquarters of Eat Just, a startup, a playing-card-sized slice of meat has been glazed and grilled. It is served with a sweet-potato puree, maitake mushrooms and some pickled peppers. The meal is remarkable because the meat was grown in a lab, rather than on an animal. It is mundane because the texture, taste, look and smell of the meat is almost identical to that of chicken. And that, of course, is the point.

第一口吃“培养”肉的感觉独特而乏味。在初创公司Eat Just加州总部的一间温馨的厨房里，一块扑克牌大小的肉片已经被涂上酱料并烤好了，佐以红薯泥、舞茸、泡椒。这顿饭很特别，因为肉是在实验室中培养出来的，而不是来自于动物。味道一般，因为它的口感、味道、外观、气味几乎和鸡肉完全一致。当然，重点就在这里。

The cultivated-meat business hopes that this experience will become more common. In June Eat Just and Upside Foods, another California startup, became the first two companies to win regulatory approval to sell cultivated meat in America. Eat Just also sells cultivated meat in in Singapore, which in 2020 became the first country to permit the sale of the stuff. A herd of rivals is stampeding after them. All told, around 160 firms are trying to bring cultivated meats to market.

这家人造肉公司希望让这种体验变得更加普遍。6月，Eat Just和另一家加州的初创公司Upside Foods成为首批获得监管部门批准在美国销售人造肉的公司。Eat Just公司也在新加坡销售人造肉，新加坡于2020年成为第一个允许销售人造肉的国家。众多的竞争对手纷至沓来，总共约有160家公司正在尝试将人造肉推向市场。

But doing so will be challenging. In America diners without the benefit of a press card can find cultivated meat in just two restaurants, one in San Francisco and one in Washington, dc. A few years ago the industry was bullish. In 2021 McKinsey guessed it might grow to $25bn worldwide by the end of the decade. That hope is fading, amid stubbornly high costs and troubles with scaling production. Most companies are now more focused on hybrid meats, which combine cultivated animal protein with that derived from soya or wheat. That sort of hybrid dinner is what your correspondent sampled with Eat Just.

但这样做将面临挑战。在美国，没有记者证的食客只能在两家餐厅找到人造肉，一家位于旧金山，另一家位于华盛顿特区。几年前，人们看好这个行业。2021年，麦肯锡公司预测到这个十年结束时，全球人造肉产业的价值可能增长至250亿美元。由于成本居高不下以及扩大生产遇到困难，这种希望正在破灭。现在大多数公司更加关注混合肉制品，将培养的动物蛋白与大豆或小麦蛋白相结合。记者在Eat Just公司品尝的就是这种混合肉制品。

On paper, cultivated meat looks attractive. The un reckons meat and dairy production already accounts for 12% of humanity’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Demand is soaring among the growing middle classes of Africa and Asia. Advocates of lab-grown meat argue that it could help meet that demand without the world busting its carbon budget.

人造肉从表面来看很有吸引力。据联合国估计，肉制品和奶制品生产已占人类温室气体排放量的12%。在非洲和亚洲，不断壮大的中产阶级对肉类和奶制品的需求日益增长。支持者认为人造肉有助于在满足需求的同时，避免全球的碳预算超支。

In rich countries, by contrast, plenty of people say they want to reduce their consumption, either for ethical reasons or environmental ones. (Two-fifths of Americans claim to restrict their meat consumption on environmental grounds.) Lab-grown meat may, for some consumers, be less ethically worrisome than eating animals. And the early success of plant-based meat alternatives gave investors hope. Beyond Meat, one such firm, went public in 2019, and saw its value zoom to $14bn.

相比之下在发达国家，许多人表示出于道德或环境原因，他们希望减少肉类消费（五分之二的美国人表示出于环境原因而减少肉类消费。）对于部分消费者来说，吃人造肉可能比吃动物肉的道德忧虑更少。植物肉替代品的早期成功给投资者带来了希望。例如，Beyond Meat公司于2019年上市，市值曾一度飙升至140亿美元。

Enthusiasts for vat-grown meat have dreamed up all sorts of potential applications beyond chicken. Earlier this year, Vow Food, an Australian startup, created a “mammoth meatball”, mixing ancient dna recovered from frozen mammoth remains with that of modern-day elephants. Wanda Fish Technologies, an Israeli firm, is working on cultivated bluefin tuna. A startup co-founded by Mark Post of Maastricht University, who served up a $300,000 lab-grown hamburger in 2013, is trying to produce vat-made leather.

人造肉的爱好者已经想象出除了鸡肉之外的各种潜在用途。今年早些时候，澳大利亚初创公司Vow Food创造了一种“猛犸象肉丸”，将从冷冻的猛犸象遗骸中提取的古老DNA与现代大象的DNA混合在一起。以色列公司 Wanda Fish Technologies正在研究人造蓝鳍金枪鱼。马斯特里赫特大学的马克·波斯特与他人共同创立的初创公司正在尝试生产人造皮革，他曾于2013年推出了价值30万美元的人造汉堡。

Broadly speaking, there are two ways to make cultivated meat. Both start with cells taken from livestock or poultry animals. One option is to put the cells in a stainless-steel tank, called a “bioreactor”, that is filled with a nutrient-rich liquid that is often, but not always, derived from cow embryos. The cells multiply, and after a month or so a meaty slurry can be harvested and turned into minced-meat products such as chicken nuggets. The alternative is to place the cells on a scaffold. That encourages them to grow into a certain shape, and is used to create more fibrous meat, such as steaks.

人造肉的制作方法主要有两种，都是从取自牲畜或家禽的细胞开始。一种方法是将细胞放入称为“生物反应器”的不锈钢罐中，其中装满了营养丰富的液体，这种液体通常取自牛胚胎，但并非总是如此。细胞增殖大约一个月后，可以采集到肉浆，并转化为鸡块等肉糜制品。另一种方法是将细胞放置在支架上，促使它们长成某种形状，用来制作纤维含量较高的肉制品，例如牛排。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


How the sausage is made

如何制作香肠

The details vary between firms. Some, such as Eat Just and Upside Foods, start with cells from a chicken embryo. The advantage is that embryonic cells can grow in the suspension indefinitely. But they need to be encouraged to follow the desired development path, such as forming muscle cells. This is done either by genetic engineering or by adding proteins called “growth factors” to the nutrient solution. SciFi Foods, by contrast, uses cells harvested from adult cow muscle. Muscle cells stop growing after several dozen generations. On the other hand, they may need fewer growth factors than embryonic ones, and for some they give a flavour closer to that of animal meat.

具体情况因公司而异。有些公司从鸡胚细胞入手，例如：Eat Just公司、Upside Foods公司。优点是胚胎细胞可以在悬浮液中无限期生长，但需要促使它们遵循预期的发展道路，例如形成肌肉细胞，这是通过基因工程或在营养液中添加所谓“生长因子”的蛋白质来完成的。相比之下，SciFi Foods公司使用从成年牛肌肉中采集的细胞，培养几十代后会停止生长。另一方面，它们可能需要比胚胎细胞更少的生长因子，有人认为其味道更接近于动物肉。

Every firm faces the same two big challenges. The first is demand. Although cultivated meat is far from supermarket shelves, its alt-protein cousin, plant-based meat, is going through a rough patch. According to Circana, a research firm, sales of alternative meats in America peaked in 2021 at $483m. In the 12 months to November of this year they were down to $338m. Sales are still growing in Europe, albeit more slowly than before. As momentum has dwindled, so has investors’ opinion of the plant-based superstars. Beyond Meat’s value has plummeted to just over $600m.

每家企业都面临着同样的两大挑战。首先是需求，尽管培养肉还远没有出现在超市货架上，但类似的蛋白质替代品素肉却陷入了困境。根据市场调研公司Circana的数据，2021年，美国肉类替代品的销售额达到4.83亿美元的峰值。在截至今年11月份的12个月里，这一数字降至3.38亿美元。欧洲的销售额仍在增长，但增长速度比以前慢。随着势头的减弱，投资者对素肉明星企业的热情也已消退。Beyond Meat公司的市值暴已跌至略高于6亿美元。

Some of this is to do with taste. Data from the Good Food Institute (gfi), an alternative-protein think-tank, suggest that about half of the people who tried plant-based meat just once do not like it. That will give cultivated-meat makers hope, as their product ought to taste much more like the real thing.

部分原因在于味道。蛋白质替代品的智库“美食研究所”（GFI）的数据表明，在品尝过一次素肉的人中，大约一半不喜欢它的味道。这将给人造肉厂商带来希望，因为他们的产品吃起来应该更像真肉。

The second problem is cost, which may be harder to fix. The gfi calculates that plant-based meats cost around double what a cut of farm-grown meat goes for. Cultivated meat is more expensive still. But progress is being made. In the early days, most firms used growth solution with ultra-pure, pharmaceutical-grade ingredients. Switching to agricultural-grade ingredients can cut those costs by up to 90%, says Elliot Swartz, an analyst at the gfi, though he thinks cultivated meat would still be around five times pricier than the farm-grown sort.

第二个问题是成本，这可能更难解决。据“美食研究所”计算，素肉的价格大约是农场养殖肉的两倍。人造肉还是更贵，但正在取得进展。在早期阶段，大多数公司采用含有超纯医药级原料的生长溶液。“美食研究所”的分析师埃利奥特·斯沃茨表示，改用农业级原料可以将成本降低90%，但他认为人造肉的价格仍然是农场养殖肉的五倍左右。

Amy Chen, chief operating officer at Upside Foods, says her firm has found cells that do not need external growth factors, which helps cut costs. The aptly named Gustavo Burger, the boss of Believer Meat, an Israeli company, claims to have lowered the cost of growth solution to below $1 per litre, far lower than other firms pay. (Believer Meat recycles much of its solution.)

Upside Foods公司的首席运营官Amy Chen表示，她的公司已经发现了不需要外部生长因子的细胞，这有助于降低成本。以色列公司Believer Meat的老板古斯塔沃·伯格（贴切地与汉堡同音）声称，已将生长溶液的成本降至每升1美元以下，远低于其他公司的成本。（Believer Meat公司循环利用大部分溶液。）
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Meat-makers hope that costs can be cut further by a new supply chain that is taking shape. Some of this involves existing companies, such as adm, an agricultural giant that has started to provide the ingredients for growth solutions. New entrants with tailor-made gear have sprung up too. Multus Biotechnology, a British firm, likewise sells solution ingredients. NewDay Farms, a Chinese outfit, produces the scaffolds that help shape the cells when they grow.

人造肉生产商希望，正在形成的新供应链进一步降低成本。现有公司参与其中，例如，农业巨头阿彻丹尼尔斯米德兰公司（ADM）已开始供应生长溶液的原料。新入行的公司也纷纷涌现，并提供定制产品。英国公司Multus Biotechnology也在销售生长溶液的原料。中国公司“晨熙新创”生产的支架促使细胞在生长中成型。

There are questions about how climate-friendly cultivated meat really is. A study published earlier this year (but not yet peer reviewed) by researchers at the University of California, Davis, found that, in some circumstances, cultivated meat could be more polluting than the conventional stuff. Industry advocates have retorted that the assumptions made around the type of growth-solution used are inaccurate. In particular, they say that the study assumes the use of resource-intensive pharmaceutical grade ingredients, which the industry is moving away from.

人造肉的环保性受到质疑。今年早些时候，加州大学戴维斯分校的研究人员发表的一项研究（但尚未经过同行评审）发现在某些情况下，人造肉可能比传统肉类造成更多的污染。行业支持者反驳说，基于人造肉使用的生长溶液类型所做的假设与事实不符。他们特别指出，该研究假设人造肉使用资源密集型的医药级成分，而该行业正在远离这种成分。

But even fans of cultivated meat acknowledge that the technology will use a lot of energy. Another study published in January by researchers at ce Delft, a consultancy, and the gfi found that per kilogram of meat produced, tank-grown meat is likely to use much more energy than farm-grown protein. This is largely because the bioreactor needs a lot of power to control its temperature. As a result, cultivated meat will only cut the carbon footprint of the meat industry if renewable energy is used in the production process. And even then, according to the study, it will only do so for pork and beef.

但即使是人造肉的粉丝也承认，这项技术将消耗大量的能源。1月份，荷兰代尔夫特环保咨询公司（Ce Delft）和美食研究所（GFI）的研究人员发表的另一项研究发现，每生产一公斤人造肉可能比养殖肉消耗更多的能源。这主要是因为生物反应器需要大量电力来控制温度。因此，只有在生产过程中使用可再生能源的情况下，人造肉才会减少肉制品行业的碳足迹。这项研究指出，即便如此，也只会减少猪肉和牛肉的碳足迹。

Whether all this effort can make lab-grown meat attractive and cheap enough to appeal to consumers remains to be seen. In the meantime, many companies have decided to pursue a hybrid strategy, mixing (relatively) cheap plant protein with their cultivated animal cells. Some firms, such as Mission Barns, another California-based firm, add just a small amount of animal-fat cells to plant-based protein to improve the taste of, say, a sausage. For others, such as Eat Just, the proportion of cultivated meat will be much higher. “It took me a while to get comfortable with [moving to the hybrid approach]. Because it feels a bit like we’re compromising,” admits Josh Tetrick, Eat Just’s boss.

这些努力能否使人造肉足够诱人和低廉来吸引消费者，还有待于观察。与此同时，许多公司决定采取混合策略，将相对低廉的植物蛋白与培养的动物细胞相结合。有些公司在植物蛋白中添加少量的动物脂肪细胞，以改善香肠等肉制品的味道，例如：总部同样位于加州的Mission Barns公司。Eat Just等其他公司添加的培养肉的比例会高得多。Eat Just公司的老板乔什·蒂特里克承认：“我花了一段时间才适应（转向混合策略），因为感觉我们好像在妥协”。