Marbled Wagyu beef and Japanese cuisine with "cultured meat"

In Tezuka Osamu's manga "Jungle Emperor" drawn in the 1950s, there is a scene where artificial meat "artificial meat" is made to stop cannibalism of animals.

It's been about 70 years since then.

Now, the technology is about to become a reality.

Now of "cultured meat"

"Cultured meat" technology that grows muscle cells, increases them, and hardens them to make meat.

Research has progressed dramatically in the last 10 years.

The trigger was a hamburger announced by a Dutch research team in 2013.

Beef made by culturing cells was used for the putty.

(Cultured meat hamburger)

However, the total price to make it is over 30 million yen.

Although mass production is difficult, it surprised the world by showing that cultured meat can be used as a dish.

Israel is currently being actively researched.

This June, a factory was established that can produce a large amount of cultured chicken meat.

(Image

courtesy of

Future Meat)

Equipped with 7 tanks for culturing cells, it has become possible to produce up to 500 kilograms of cultured meat per day.

With these technologies, the cost of 100 grams of a hamburger putty could be reduced to $ 3.9, or about 450 yen in Japanese yen.

(Image courtesy of Future Meat)

Only employees can eat because there is no permission to sell in Japan.

We are aiming for sales in the United States, where rules are being created.

Singapore goes further.

It is already on sale to the general public.

Last year, the government approved the sale of cultured chicken meat for the first time in the world.

(Image courtesy of GOOD Meat) An

American food company offers dishes made with cultured meat at a hotel restaurant.

The price is about 2000 yen per plate.

You can enjoy dishes such as chicken rice and waffles.

You can also order delivery from your smartphone.

(Person in charge of GOOD Meat)

"The number of companies dealing with cultured meat is increasing explosively. The world meat market is huge and our power is not enough, so many companies are entering now. I feel very reassured that I am coming. "

In the food crisis

Why is research on cultured meat progressing all over the world?

Behind this is the global population growth.

The world population is estimated to reach 9.7 billion by 2050.

Some families may go to eat "grilled meat" on celebration days, but it is said that the consumption of meat will increase when they become economically rich.

It is also expected that the amount of meat that human beings will eat will increase 1.8 times in 2050 compared to 2010.

On the other hand, existing livestock farming requires a large amount of grain and water to feed, making it difficult to expand.

There is also concern that a "protein crisis" that makes it difficult to ingest protein from meat will come in the near future.

New technologies such as "insect food", "vegetable meat substitutes", and "cultured meat" are attracting attention in order to cover the shortcomings in the livestock industry.

The idea is to support food together with the livestock industry.

An American consulting company estimates that by 2040, 60% of the global meat market will be "cultured meat" and "alternative meat," and the market size of cultured meat will be 69 trillion yen.

(Chicken cells in culture medium)

Cultured meat is made by extracting a small amount of cells from animals such as cows and chickens and increasing them outside the animal's body.

Since it does not require vast land, it is expected that there is a possibility that a large amount of meat can be produced cheaply in the future.

In Japan, the government is supporting the research of cultured meat through a large-scale research project such as the "Moonshot R & D System".

(Image of a cultured meat factory powered by solar energy and algae as a nutrient source Image courtesy of Integriculture)

Aiming for "Japanese beef culture meat"

Currently, only "minced meat" used for hamburgers can be mass-produced.

However, you may feel that hamburger steak is not enough every day.

Therefore, Japanese researchers are aiming for cultured meat like Japanese beef with sashimi.

It's meat with a steak-like structure.

Professor Noriya Matsuzaki of Osaka University announced in August that he succeeded in producing cultured meat with the same structure as Wagyu beef.

(Professor Matsuzaki)

"The fiber of the cells is scraped into a hamburger steak, which is the mainstream of cultured meat nowadays. But that doesn't make it a steak."

Professor Matsuzaki focused on the structure of Japanese beef.

Meat is intricately entwined with fibrous lean meat, fat, and blood vessels.

I thought that I should make the fiber itself.

However, it was difficult to manually create a three-dimensional structure with cells.

That's why I focused on 3D printers.

(3D printer)

Developed a method to put cells in a special container and fuse them together while maintaining their shape.

We succeeded in making fibers for muscles, fats, and blood vessels, and by pumping them up, we succeeded in making cultured meat with the same structure as Japanese beef and about 1.5 cm in size.

(Finished cultured meat)

The epoch-making point of this method is that the ratio of lean meat and fat can be freely changed.

In the future, if you can make meat with a 3D food printer at home, you can make meat according to your mood, such as "Mom has a stomachache so let's reduce fat today" or "The eldest son of a high school student is a sirloin steak". Expected to be adjustable.

However, at this stage, the work of pumping up the fiber is done manually, and Professor Matsuzaki is aiming to develop a device that automatically makes steak meat in cooperation with the manufacturer.

(Professor Matsuzaki)

"Now, I can't eat it because I don't make all the steps with edible ingredients. However, I think it's delicious if I eat it because it has the same structure as Wagyu. We have to scale up, we have to develop automation equipment. We also need technology to culture a large amount of cells. We still need to develop new technology. "

As one of the restaurant courses

Research is also progressing at Japanese venture companies.

The Divers Farm in Osaka is researching how to make cultured chicken chunks that are used in yakitori, rather than chicken nuggets that are a collection of meat.

(Vice President Masaharu Shimamura, Divers Farm)

Vice President Masaharu Shimamura has established a method for culturing chicken using his own technology.

It is possible to make thin sheet-shaped chicken, but by stacking it, we succeeded in making cultured meat that is 4 cm square and about 5 grams in size.

However, even with this size, the production cost is 100,000 yen.

Research is still needed before it can be provided.

(Cultured chicken meat) In

fact, Mr. Shimamura is a chef who has the skills to be selected as a global guidebook that evaluates restaurants by the number of stars.

The reason I became interested in cultured meat was the change in the market.

Now, certain kinds of fish are no longer available.

We have also heard the news that the catch is declining, and we have heard from the poultry farmer that we are the supplier that "the price of feed is rising and the management is difficult".

(Mr. Shimamura, who stands in Chubo) Under

such circumstances, I felt that there would be more new food options while preserving the current environment if the meat was made by culturing it from cells, so I started working on it.

I also went to the laboratory of Professor Tatsuya Shimizu of Tokyo Women's Medical University, who is the representative of the national project, to study.

Among them, I felt that it was difficult to reach the point of "eating" at the university where research is the main, so I was introduced to a researcher of regenerative medicine through Professor Shimizu and started a venture company.

Mr. Shimamura is continuing to make prototypes to add the cultured meat he made to one of the course dishes.

Cultured meat does not have blood, so I added miso to make meatballs to bring out the richness.

Turnips, shimeji mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, carrots and yuzu are added to make dishes with ankake.

(Cultured chicken meatballs)

According to Mr. Shimamura, cultured meat can make chicken meat that is thinner than ever before, as well as fish that have a lot of bones and are not suitable for eating, and endangered types of fish. You can also increase the amount of meat.

Furthermore, since it can be made in a sterile condition, I expect that it will be easier to eat raw chicken and liver.

It seems that some regular customers are looking forward to eating cultured meat dishes.

(Mr. Shimamura)

"It

's

a food we provide to our customers, so I'm doing research myself because I want to know everything. I can't eat it yet, but I have the opportunity to get a little interested in cultured meat. I hope I can, and I want to provide an opportunity for discussions to begin. "

How safe is it?

これまで大阪大学とベンチャー企業の例を紹介したが、食べられないの？と疑問に思った方もいるかもしれない。

察しのとおり、日本では販売のためのルールが十分に整備されていない。

培養肉に関わる基準ができていないためだ。

日本では去年10月、農林水産省のフードテック官民協議会の中に、培養肉のルールについて検討する細胞農業のワーキンググループが立ち上がった。

また、実用化に向け法整備や安全基準の策定を進める議員連盟の設立に向けた動きもある。

細胞農業研究会事務局の吉富愛望アビガイル広報委員長によると、主な論点は５つだ。

1. 安全性基準

2. 食品表示基準

3. 畜産業との共存（細胞の知財）

4. 名称

5. サスティナブル基準

消費者にとって特に重要なのは、安全基準だ。

培養肉は作り方が企業によって異なる。

最終的な商品には、既存の食品や食品添加物として認められていないものが入っていなければいいのか。

製造過程ではそうした成分を使っていいのか。

消費者が受け入れられる基準を検討しなければならない。

また、消費者に培養肉だということをどう表示するのか。

日本は品質の高いブランド牛があり、畜産農家の細胞の知財をどう守るのか。

社会に受け入れられる名前は。

持続可能な食かどうかをなにで判断するのか。

論点はたくさんある。

(Abigail Public Relations Chairman, Abigail Yoshitomi, Secretariat, Cellular Agriculture Study Group, Tama University Rule-Forming Strategy Research Institute)

"In Japan, where a super-aging society is coming, there are people who have to be aware of their health and live their diet. Cultured meat may be in demand even for those who have not eaten meat from the viewpoint of animal protection. Since there are many good ingredients in Japan, high quality cells that are the basis of cultured meat are available. It may be available and branded. I would like to proceed with rule making so that new global standards for meat will not be set in the absence of Japan. "

Reiko Yuguchi, Deputy Researcher of the Japan Science and Technology Agency, points out that transparency of information is important for the spread of cultured meat.

"There are two points that are necessary for cultured meat to be accepted by society. First, is it possible to properly convey to consumers whether the manufacturing process itself is safe and understand it? And the other point is whether we can properly prove that the raw material of the cultured meat is okay to take into the body. In any case, communication between the consumer and the person who makes it is important. I think it's a point. "

In-depth communication

Cultured meat for which research is progressing.

I felt great potential as one of the options for the impending protein crisis.

On the other hand, as experts have pointed out, it is important to thoroughly discuss how consumers will accept cultured meat and what their relationship with the livestock industry will be.

There is no waiting for measures against the food crisis caused by population growth.

I would like you to deepen discussions, set convincing standards, and nurture the industry.