SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the advancement of animal-free meat alternatives. Today, plant-based meats are consumed mostly by vegans and vegetarians willing to accept higher costs or different tastes compared with meat from animals. Recently, plant-based burgers and sausages have become popular, but the situation is very different for whole-cut meats. Steaks or chicken breasts, for example, have unique textures and tastes that are not yet matched by animal-free alternatives. The proposed project will improve the texture of alternative meats and provide a path to improved nutrition, taste, and aroma.The proposed project addresses a limitation of plant-based meats: they lack the distinct fibrous texture found in natural meats. This project advances ultrafine protein fibers with similar structure to animal muscle fibers. Project aims include ultrafine protein fiber production, development of sterile bioreactor systems to house fiber scaffolds for tissue engineering, and feasibility studies of culturing a variety of agriculturally relevant animal cells in the fiber scaffold bioreactors. The first project aim will overcome the technical hurdle of producing edible protein fibers using scalable food-safe processes. The deliverable for Aim 1 will be edible fibrous protein scaffolds with textures approximating meats. Project Aim 2 will evaluate perfusion systems to securely house scaffolds under sterile conditions conducive to cell culture. The deliverable for Aim 2 will be reusable custom tissue culture chambers. Project Aim 3 will compare a selection of animal cells based on their proliferation rates and viability when cultured in our fibrous tissue engineering scaffolds. The deliverable for Aim 3 will be animal cell-based muscle and/or fat tissues.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is the advancement of sustainable and ethically produced meat alternatives. Most people have tried or know someone who has tried plant-based meats. Opinions vary but most people acknowledge that meats made from animals are not accurately recreated using plants, especially for unprocessed whole cuts like chicken breasts and beef tenderloins. The question remains if plant-based meat can be more like animal meat in terms of texture, taste, and nutrition. One approach is to test if plant-based meats improved when they are combined with cultured animal cells. To address this hypothesis, this project will advance the technological understanding of realistic plant-based meats by developing methods to combine cultured animal cells with fibrous plant-based scaffolds. By finding out how many animal cells are needed to enhance plant-based meats, and what types of animal cells to add, this project will help define commercialization strategies for this emerging market. This project will test methods for adding cultured animal cells to plant-based whole cut meats. Animal cells are expensive to produce, and the quantity of each cell type needed to improve plant-based meats is not known. For example, what is the number of muscle cells, fat cells, or skin cells needed to make a plant-based chicken breast taste better? What are the best ways to add cells? How do different cell types like muscle, fat, or skin get placed in the right spots? What other plant-derived additives can enhance the flavor that cultured cells may provide? These questions can be answered by making plant-based meats with real meat texture and testing different methods of incorporating animal cells into them. Food-grade plant protein fibers that are the same size as animal skeletal muscle fibers will be packed together like muscle tissue to replicate the structure and texture of conventional meat. Animal cells will then be added to enhance the taste, aroma, and nutrition. This project will focus on developing methods to add animal cells to plant-based pork, chicken, and beef.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.