Plant-based alginate-guar gum-konjac glucomannan scaffold with enhanced thermal stability and biocompatibility for cultured meat production

Conventional livestock farming places a heavy burden on natural resources and contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. As a sustainable alternative, cultured meat has gained significant attention; however, developing an effective scaffold for cultured meat production with both structural integrity and thermal stability remains a major challenge. This study presents a novel plant-based scaffold composed of alginate, guar gum, and konjac glucomannan, specifically engineered to improve the thermal stability required for cultured meat applications. The scaffold was fabricated using hydrogel formation, lyophilization, and autoclave sterilization to ensure its suitability for cell cultivation. Mechanical testing revealed an optimized scaffold with a young’s modulus of approximately 93.45 kPa, closely resembling the stiffness of conventional meat. The scaffold demonstrated excellent water retention capacity and significantly enhanced thermal stability, retaining 86.8% of its weight after cooking, overcoming a key limitation of traditional hydrogel-based scaffolds. Biocompatibility assessments confirmed that the scaffold is not cytotoxic to C2C12 myoblast cells, a mouse model cell line for cultured meat production, with CCK-8 assay results indicating strong cell viability. Additionally, live/dead staining of scaffolds with cultured C2C12 cells showed that over 80% of cells remained viable, supporting its potential for long-term cell culture. These results highlight the scaffold’s ability to maintain mechanical and structural integrity while providing a supportive environment for cell growth. In addition, myogenic marker MyoD1 was also accessed to confirm the great potential of cell differentiation within the scaffold. This study introduces an innovative scaffold formulation that enhances cultured meat processing by addressing thermal degradation challenges. By integrating plant-based biomaterials, this research paves the way for scalable, sustainable, and commercially viable cultured meat production, aligning with the future of food engineering and alternative protein development.