Are you looking at how you make the scaffolds and making sure they're potentially vegan? A lot of vegetarians and vegans will be curious about lab-grown meat, but would be turned off if something like collagen was used as part of the scaffold.
Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat
71–80 of 205 posts
Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Contamination is definitely a problem for cultivated meat. It is one of the leading risks when scaling because if the reactor is contaminated at all, you could lose entire batches of meat, and as you can imagine, this is a huge cost hit. To avoid this, cultivated meat is grown in sterile, clean environments. The same kind of equipment you'd find in a hospital (autoclaves) is used to sterilize the equipment common in…
Do these sterility requirements have an impact on the food safety concerns for the final product? e.g. does the meat end up either completely ruined vs. totally safe to eat raw? Just curious, I have no plans to eat raw cultivated meat :)
> I have no plans to eat raw cultivated meat :)
This could actually be one of the new doors it opens. Perfectly sterile sashimi can travel farther.
Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Good Food Institute is estimating that about 10% of global meat consumption could be switched over to cultivated meat around 2030. While 10% is low 10% in the next 8 years seems very impressive to me. Do you have a link to the report? I searched but their State of the Industry report has a question mark instead of a date https://gfi.org/resource/cultivated-meat-eggs-and-dairy-stat...
Good catch! This should have said ATKearney, and has been updated. You can find the report here: https://gastronomiaycia.republica.com/wp-content/uploads/201...
Thank you.
Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Asking/forcing people to change their behavior doesn't have a great track record. Given that constraint, putting effort into tech like this makes sense, especially if it's in addition to making behavior changes less difficult, like you propose. It's not an either-or.
I didn't say we need to ask people to change their behavior. I know that that's futile. My point is that great alternatives already exist, that don't demand a behavior change. For example, renewable energies and plant-based meats (Impossible and others).
These both demand behaviour changes. Using renewable energy is a behaviour change (although no one's running their own oil refinery in their backyard) even if it's at a different tier and eating plant based meats is CERTAINLY a behaviour change. I think asking everyone to start eating mediocre faux-ground-beef is a pretty big behaviour change.
Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat
#75No real comment beyond cool! Go you!
Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat
#76Are you looking at how you make the scaffolds and making sure they're potentially vegan? A lot of vegetarians and vegans will be curious about lab-grown meat, but would be turned off if something like collagen was used as part of the scaffold.
Yes, we are in the process of finalizing our animal-free scaffold composition.
Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat
#77Hmm. The name. It has a connotation lol.
Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat
#78Just wanted to say this is probably the best launch HN description I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been here for the better part of the decade. Thank you for going into the real meat (ahem) of it and not being scared of writing at length. Your cause, if successful, will hopefully indirectly result in orders of magnitude reduction in total animal suffering, so best of luck and godspeed.
Agreed, it was a particularly well-written description and if the end products manufactured with it reached the right taste/price, they're something I'd eat regularly
Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat
#79Harm is done to the ecosystem when we concentrate cows in one place and feed them chemically fortified slurry. When cows are allowed to graze pastures, they instead have a positive effect on the local ecosystem.
As such, I am extremely skeptical that the right way forward is to reduce and concentrate the essence of a cow into bioreactors and feed them chemically fortified slurry.
Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat
#80Awesome technology and congrats on the launch :)