Bene Meat Researchers Publish Cultivated Meat Safety Review, Rejecting Cancer Cell Comparisons

Researchers at Bene Meat Technologies have published a review in Physiological Research, exploring the safety concerns of cultivated meat production. The paper compares the risks of cultivated production against conventional meat, addressing issues such as contamination, cell lines, genetic modification, allergens, and nutritional composition. The authors argue that immortalized cell lines used in cultivated meat production are not synonymous with malignancy, comparing them to cell lines used in biopharmaceutical production for decades.

In addition to addressing concerns about immortalized cell lines, the review also discusses residual growth factors from cultivation media and allergens from plant, fungal, and algal inputs. The authors suggest that these matters should be addressed through pre-market consultation with regulators rather than viewed as unresolved hazards. BeneMeat, a Czech cultivated meat technology company, has submitted a safety dossier to the FDA and has already become the first company registered in the EU Feed Materials Register to produce cultivated cells as a pet food ingredient.