Meal in a dish

A Kiwi company is supplying starter cells for cultivated meat

- Andrea Graves

Cultivated meat is a mind-bending concept. Take a muscle biopsy from a living animal, isolate the cells you need, and put them in a vessel with water, nutrients, oxygen, salts and growth factors. Keep them warm and circulate the liquid. When the cells have multiplied prolifically, change the recipe to make them differentiate into muscle and fat. The resulting meat paste can be made into burgers and nuggets.

Perhaps you prefer a finer cut? The complex structures required can be achieved by growing cells on edible scaffolds developed by bioengineers working to heal and replace bodily tissues and organs.

A Kiwi start-up company, Opo Bio, entered this brave new world last year. It sells starter cells from cattle, sheep and pigs from its Auckland lab.