Tapping into an abundant source of nutrient rich waste, researchers in London have developed a novel method using yeast from beer brewing to create edible scaffolds on which to cultivate lab-grown meat.
The technique repurposes yeast left over from brewing beer to feed bacteria which create the cellulose scaffolding that synthetic meat needs to create its own structure.
“This is feedstock, food for our bacteria that make the bacterial cellulose that we use as a scaffold to put animal cells on to make lab-grown meat,” University College London (UCL) PhD student, Christian Harrison, told Reuters, holding a flask of spent yeast at a brewery in south London.
“The bacteria can grow on lots of different things but the advantage of feeding them with this waste product is that we can turn waste, that would otherwise be thrown away, into something useful,” Harrison said.
The study, published in Frontiers in Nutrition, explores the use of bacterial cellulose derived from spent brewer’s yeast, a by-product currently often discarded.
Harrison says tests of the mechanical properties of his bacterial cellulose scaffolding, show promise for replicating the mouthfeel and texture of real meat.
“By growing the cells on this cellulose, we give our meaty product a bit more texture, a bit more chewiness, which is more like real meat,” he said.
The researchers said it is still proof-of-concept work, demonstrating an edible scaffold material rather than a finished product, with major hurdles still ahead on scaling and consistent manufacturing.
More broadly, cultivated meat remains a nascent, limited market globally. Singapore was the first to approve sales in December 2020, and US regulators cleared the first sales in June 2023. Companies say the biggest hurdles are cutting production costs and scaling manufacturing reliably under strict food-safety rules.
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