SBIR Phase II: Meat substitutes combining cultured animal cells with plant-based fibers

SBIR 第二阶段：将培养的动物细胞与植物纤维相结合的肉类替代品

• 批准号: 2303460
• 负责人: Luke MacQueen
• 金额: $ 99.8万
• 依托单位: TENDER FOOD, INC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2025-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2303460&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Meat; substitutes

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is the advancement of sustainable and ethically produced meat alternatives. Most people have tried or know someone who has tried plant-based meats. Opinions vary but most people acknowledge that meats made from animals are not accurately recreated using plants, especially for unprocessed whole cuts like chicken breasts and beef tenderloins. The question remains if plant-based meat can be more like animal meat in terms of texture, taste, and nutrition. One approach is to test if plant-based meats improved when they are combined with cultured animal cells. To address this hypothesis, this project will advance the technological understanding of realistic plant-based meats by developing methods to combine cultured animal cells with fibrous plant-based scaffolds. By finding out how many animal cells are needed to enhance plant-based meats, and what types of animal cells to add, this project will help define commercialization strategies for this emerging market. This project will test methods for adding cultured animal cells to plant-based whole cut meats. Animal cells are expensive to produce, and the quantity of each cell type needed to improve plant-based meats is not known. For example, what is the number of muscle cells, fat cells, or skin cells needed to make a plant-based chicken breast taste better? What are the best ways to add cells? How do different cell types like muscle, fat, or skin get placed in the right spots? What other plant-derived additives can enhance the flavor that cultured cells may provide? These questions can be answered by making plant-based meats with real meat texture and testing different methods of incorporating animal cells into them. Food-grade plant protein fibers that are the same size as animal skeletal muscle fibers will be packed together like muscle tissue to replicate the structure and texture of conventional meat. Animal cells will then be added to enhance the taste, aroma, and nutrition. This project will focus on developing methods to add animal cells to plant-based pork, chicken, and beef.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛影响是可持续和道德产生的肉类替代品的进步。大多数人都尝试过或认识一个尝试过植物性肉类的人。意见各不相同，但大多数人都承认，用动物制成的肉不是使用植物准确地重新创建的，尤其是用于鸡胸肉和牛里脊肉等未经加工的整体切割。问题仍然存在于植物性肉在质地，味道和营养方面更像动物肉。一种方法是测试植物性肉与培养的动物细胞结合时是否有所改善。为了解决这一假设，该项目将通过开发将培养的动物细胞与纤维状植物基础支架相结合的方法来提高对现实植物性肉类的技术理解。通过发现需要多少个动物细胞来增强植物性肉类，以及要添加哪些类型的动物细胞，该项目将有助于定义这个新兴市场的商业化策略。 该项目将测试将培养的动物细胞添加到基于植物的全切肉中的方法。动物细胞的生产昂贵，并且不知道改善植物性肉类所需的每种细胞类型的数量。例如，使植物性鸡胸肉味道更好的肌肉细胞，脂肪细胞或皮肤细胞的数量是多少？添加细胞的最佳方法是什么？肌肉，脂肪或皮肤等不同细胞类型如何放置在正确的斑点？哪些其他植物衍生的添加剂可以增强培养细胞可能提供的风味？可以通过制作具有真实肉质质地的植物性肉并测试将动物细胞掺入其中的不同方法来回答这些问题。与动物骨骼肌纤维相同的食物级植物蛋白纤维将像肌肉组织一样被包装在一起，以复制常规肉的结构和质地。然后，将添加动物细胞以增强味道，香气和营养。该项目将着重于开发将动物细胞添加到基于植物的猪肉，鸡肉和牛肉的方法。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为值得通过评估来提供支持。