Environmental Impacts of Producing Culture Medium Consisting of Serum-free, Food and Complex Ingredients for Cultivated Meat

Abstract

Culture medium accounts for most of the environmental impact of cultivated meat production. This study quantitatively evaluated and analyzed the environmental impact of producing a culture medium consisting of serum-free, food and complex ingredients for cultivated meat by performing a life cycle assessment (LCA) based on activity data at the laboratory scale. In addition, specific measures were proposed to reduce the environmental impact further. LCAs were performed at current and future production scales. This study also evaluated the impact of multiple electricity sources on the environmental impact of culture medium production. Energy, animal-derived materials, and expendables at the current scale, and energy, animal-derived materials, amino acids, and glucose at future scale are hotspots in the environmental impact of this culture medium production. The production of serum substitutes accounts for most of the environmental impact. As the scale shifts, the environmental impacts are expected to decrease by more than 70% in all impact categories. As the composition of electricity sources changed, the impact on certain categories decreased. However, as the share of renewable energy increased, the impact on land use also increased significantly. This study promotes the practical application of new culture-media for low-cost and low-environment-impact cultivated meat. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=108 SRC="FIGDIR/small/611339v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (52K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@ac6daorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1852ef4org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@cdbbe8org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@eb8703_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG O_FLOATNOGraphical abstract.C_FLOATNO SYNOPSIS. This study evaluated the environmental impact of culture-medium production for cultivated meat and reports that energy, animal-derived materials, expendables, amino acids and glucose are hotspots of this impact. C_FIG