Lab-grown meat requires the blood of foetal cows, study shows

Lab-grown meat requires the blood taken from foetal cows during the slaughter process, meaning it isn’t acceptable to vegetarians, study reveals.

This cultured alternative to farmed meat is produced in massive tanks, grown cell-by-cell, instead of within the bodies of living creatures. 

It has been celebrated by vegetarians and environmentalists, as it doesn’t require water intensive, methane producing farming practices. 

However, according to a report in Mother Jones, this isn’t the utopian solution it seems to be made out to be, as the process requires blood from the slaughterhouse.

Known as fetal bovine serum (FBS), as well as being unethical, it is also incredibly expensive, with one study suggesting at $1,000 per liter, lab-grown meat would have to sell at $200,000 per pound to break even.

An alternative to the blood extracted from a recently slaughtered pregnant cow is available, but it is also expensive and not available at scale, and getting it to that point would require major advancements in biotechnology, experts suggest. 

Despite this, hundreds of millions of dollars are being poured into the industry by investors, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Downey, Jr. 

Fetal bovine serum (FBS) has been used in labs for some time, providing test-tube cells a medium to flourish in as they grow into slabs of meat.

It has the right combination of hormones, not found in other growth medium, but it comes from the  blood of unborn cow fetuses.

It is from the mothers after slaughter, so when used in lab grown meat, the overall product would not be suitable, or seen as ethically viable, for vegetarians.

Aside from the ethical dilemma its use presents, FBS is also incredibly expensive, costing upwards of $1,000 per liter, making lab grown meat expensive.

For these products to become marketable, and competitive with meat alternatives, and naturally grown meat, it has to be of a similar price – which rules out using FBS.

Cultured meat, grown from cells in a test tube, would have to sell for $200,000 per pound if it were to break even when using FBS, a University of California study found in 2020 – so labs are looking for viable alternatives.

This cultured alternative to farmed meat is produced in massive tanks, grown cell-by-cell, instead of within the bodies of living creatures. Stock image

One of the only countries to allow the sale of lab grown meat is Singapore, and the firms operating in that country are losing money on every sale.

So far these sales have only been in the form of ‘product demos’, and it isn’t clear whether there will be an industrial-scale, profitable option in place before the first lab-meat firms begin sales in the U.S. later this year.

Doing so requires a growth medium that has all of the nutrients of FBS, but without the slaughter of cows to produce it.

According to the Good Food Institute, this sort of serum does exist and is cheaper than FBS, but still costs $400 per liter – higher than commercially viable.

‘A whole new supply chain would need to form,’ said Christina Agapakis, a biologist speaking to Mother Jones, saying this market would produce cheap serum, but a lot of innovation in the biological manufacturing space needs to happen first.

For now at least, it is unlikely lab-grown meat will be available and able to claim to be slaughter free and truly vegan-friendly. 

Even if they do bring the price down, and get away from FBS, it isn’t clear anyone will eat it, as a recent study revealed almost three-in-four members of Australia’s Gen Z are ‘disgusted’ by the idea of lab-grown meat.