Towards resource-efficient and cost-efficient cultured meat

Cultured meat is a bearer of hope for sustainable meat production, aiming at ensuring global food security while preserving environmental resources. Being a nascent industry, there are still many hurdles to overcome, some of which are cost reduction and ensuring a sustainable supply chain. This review focuses on the current state of the industry, identifies medium-related costs as one of the main cost drivers for scalable cultured meat production and discusses the latest findings on potential cost-effective nutrient replacements for cell propagation and differentiation, based on hydrolysates. Opportunities for medium recyclability with a focus on algae are also explored.