The emergence of cell-cultured meat and plant-based meat substitutes may put some sizzle into soybeans, said a Purdue University paper. In particular, cell-cultured meat, when grown in a soy-based medium, uses more soybeans to produce a single unit of “cultivated” meat than go into producing a unit of beef.
“As the primary protein-rich field crop in the world, soybeana shall be the ultimate source for protein hydrolysates, the main nutrient fed for cells to grow into cultured meat,” said the paper, published in the Purdue Agricultural Economics report.
“The competition in the new market for soybeans come from other protein-rich crops, such as peas. So the industry is encouraged to engage with the meat substitute nutrition supply industry to capture this potential market.”
After looking at 10 growth media, the Purdue team calculated 1.44 pounds of soybeans would be used in producing 1 pound of cell-cultured meat, if the oilseed was the only source of amino acids in the growth medium. There are a variety of sources at present. “Animal cells need to grow in a growth medium from which they absorb nutrition, primarily amino acids, to multiply,” they wrote.
“Compared with the conventional beef cattle industry using a lot of DDGs (distillers dried grains with solubles) instead of soybeans, cell-cultured meat and plant-based meat will have a much higher demand for soybeans,” wrote professors Holly Wang and Shihuan Kuang and graduate students Yanyu Ma and Yizhou Hua.
Cattle consume six pounds of feed to produce one pound of meat. Soy-related ingredients account for 4 percent of feed so the soybean-to-beef ratio was 0.24 to 1. The soybean-to-veggie burger ratio is 0.54 to 1 if soybeans are the only source of protein in a meat substitute. By contrast, the soybean-to-beef ratio for cultivated meat would be 1.44 to 1. The ratio might be higher because the growth medium needs to be replaced regularly before all of the amino acids are absorbed.
In late June, two companies developing cultivated chicken said they had final federal approval to sell their meat in the United States. UPSIDE Foods said the first sale of its meat to consumers followed on July 1 at a tony restaurant in San Francisco. “Reservations will be released to the public” on Thursday for six-course meals on Aug 4 that will include cultivated chicken, it said.
The Purdue paper focused on beef, the most popular red meat, in the United States, with consumption forecast at 57.6 pounds per person. Poultry is the most widely consumed meat, forecast at 100.7 pounds per capita.
“The authors acknowledge concerns about high prices, restrictive taste and appeal, and the potential artificial nature of the lab-product. Still, previous peer-reviewed studies have shown that one in three Americans are not averse to sampling lab-grown meat,” said a Purdue release.
The Purdue paper is available here.