Growing your own fruits and vegetables isn’t a novel idea. But what if you could cultivate your own meat right at home? This is the vision that Japanese companies are striving to turn into reality.

Shojinmeat Project empowers individuals to grow their own meat, much like planting vegetables, without harming any animals in the process.

This innovation is known as cultivated meat, created by harvesting some animal cells and nurturing them in tanks referred to as bioreactors. It’s authentic meat, but it doesn’t come from farms or slaughterhouses.

What is the Shojinmeat Project?

Yuki Hanu serves as the founder and director of the Shojinmeat project, describing his company as a non-profit citizen science initiative. The goal is to allow chefs and food lovers to grow custom meat on location.

While the project hasn’t completely perfected the growth of whole pork cuts yet, it has made promising progress.

“We’ve successfully established completely DIY methods for cultivating animal cells,” Hanu remarks. The project plans to provide instructions for growing small amounts of meat at home, including a shopping list of easily accessible items you can find online or locally.

A spin-off of the Shojinmeat Project, Integrated Culture, has developed a bioreactor system that can be used in both household and restaurant settings. Although it’s pre-assembled and slightly less DIY than the Shojinmeat kit, Hanu claims it’s significantly cheaper than traditional lab-grade bioreactors used in commercial meat production.

Integrated Culture provides more variety; according to Hanu, their bioreactors can grow over 30 types of cells from various animals and fish. “However, it is an industrial process,” he adds.

In comparison, Shojinmeat suggests using chicken for home cultivation, as it’s easier to source and grow than other types of meat.

Understanding the Process

So, you’ve decided to grow your own chicken at home. What’s the first step? It’s time for some shopping.

The Shojinmeat project presents a list of items that can be sourced from supermarkets or online, amounting to around 60,000 yen (about £300 or $400).

Essential items to gather include fertilized chicken eggs, warm towels, sports drinks, and collagen-coated dishes, though you can modify the components as you like.

The aim is to replicate the conditions found in lab cell cultures. Hanu explains: “Once the right cells are placed in the appropriate medium, they will grow under the right conditions for a set duration.”

Once you’ve obtained everything necessary, extract the cells from the fertilized chicken eggs and maintain them at a temperature of 37°C (98.6°F) with a pH of 7.4.

This is where an incubator comes in handy, but fortunately, the towels can serve a warming purpose.

Chicken cells require attachment to a structure known as a cell scaffold, fulfilled by your collagen-coated dishes.

Additionally, the cells need a supply of sugar, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, which Hanu refers to as the “basal medium.” This is where your sports drink comes into play.

If you’re not inclined to manage all these individual components, you can opt for the Cellular Agriculture Starter Kit from Integrated Culture. It includes all essential basal media, serum, starter cells, and necessary cell scaffolds, though it starts at a minimum of £440 ($600).

read more

Safety is understandably a concern when preparing food, especially meat. However, according to Hanu, the key priority once you’re operational is to keep your equipment clean, which should help mitigate issues with your homemade meat.

“It’s crucial to prevent contamination from mold, bacteria, and other unwanted elements,” he points out. “This is the most frequent cause of failure in cell culture.”

One effective strategy is to add egg whites containing a naturally antibacterial protein called lysozyme. Although Hanu emphasizes this is not 100% foolproof, it’s just one of several measures to help your cells flourish.

Remember to cook your meat before consuming it, just like you would with any other raw chicken, to avoid foodborne illness.

Results: A Small Yield

After all this effort, you may hope for sufficient cells to produce a whole roast chicken. However, you might come away a bit let down.

Hanu indicates that the Shojinmeat method can currently yield around one gram of edible meat.

“Creating meat effectively at home has been made possible through the development of equipment and protocols, but the volume and quality of what you can produce requires further consideration,” he states. “At present, it might be rather modest, but it’s termed ‘DIY cell culture.’”

Hanu acknowledges that his homemade meat sample was too small to be used in recipes, adding:

Not only is the quantity of homegrown meat lacking, but cultivated meat in laboratories can replicate intricate textures that mimic real meat fibers using plant fibers and 3D printing. However, homemade versions haven’t achieved this level yet.

“Generating full muscle tissue with marbling and texture involves sophisticated tissue engineering,” Hanu explains. “With our technology, our products are cultured cytoplasmic, yielding a final product more akin to spam or sausage.”

If you still dream of producing gourmet chicken sausage at home, these DIY kits could help make that a reality.

Who knows? In a few years, your newest kitchen gadget may not be an air fryer; instead, an incubator could be quietly nurturing your rib-eye steak right beside it.

read more: