Cultured meat is meat made from animal cells, not from whole animals. Scientists take a few cells and grow them in a tank with a special liquid. In 2020, Singapore became the first country to allow people to sell it. The United States allowed it in 2023.

But you cannot find it in most stores yet. The liquid is very expensive, and making large amounts is difficult.

Cultured meat is produced by taking a small number of cells from an animal and growing them in a nutrient-rich liquid called a growth medium. Because only the cells we eat are grown, some people hope it could greatly reduce the land and water used by farming. In 2013, Professor Mark Post presented the world's first hamburger made from cultured beef cells. Singapore approved the sale of cultured chicken in 2020, and the United States followed in 2023.

However, it is still sold only in very limited places. There are three main problems. The growth medium is expensive, growing cells in huge tanks is difficult, and it is hard to create complex structures like steak. Some places, such as Italy, have even banned it.

Cultivated meat is grown from a small sample of animal cells multiplied in bioreactors, rather than from slaughtered livestock. Advocates argue that by growing only edible tissue, it could reduce the land, water and time required by conventional farming. Since Mark Post unveiled the first cultured beef burger in 2013, regulators in Singapore (2020), the United States (2023) and Israel (2024) have approved certain products, yet sales remain confined to a few restaurants and small volumes.

Meanwhile, Italy and some US states have moved to ban the products. Three obstacles stand out. First, growth media containing costly proteins drive up prices; a 2021 techno-economic analysis by Humbird concluded that, on current trends, price parity with ordinary meat would be very hard to achieve.

Second, scaling up is technically demanding, as fragile cells must receive oxygen and nutrients evenly in sterile conditions. Third, structured products like steak require scaffolds to arrange muscle, fat and blood vessels. Even the environmental case is not clear-cut. One assessment found lower emissions than beef if renewable energy is used, while another suggested that reliance on fossil-fuel electricity could make it worse in the long run.