Biodegradable and Nutritionally Fortified Scaffolds for 3D Culture and Printing of Clean Meat

Abstract Taste, safety, and nutrition are critical drivers in meat selection for most consumers. Cultured meat production faces the challenge of replicating natural taste while requiring innovative approaches to enhance its nutritional profile without compromising health benefits. With advances in the techniques to create complex and layered tissues, introducing and engineering nutritional elements as desired, 3D Bio-printing offers highly effective alternatives to animal-derived meat in terms of its overall dietary quality. It is now possible to create scaffolds that provide tissue architecture, recreating natural scaffolds such as collagen or bone to approximate the anatomy of animal-derived meat. This paper will examine the overall trends, developments, possibilities, and potential challenges in maintaining and improving the nutritional value of clean meat by fortifying the 3D scaffolds with multiple nutrients to create a healthier and more viable alternative to natural meat. To produce edible tissue such as clean meat, various cell types involved need to be cultured on a scaffold that mimics their natural environment, have components safe for human consumption, and are cost-effective. The scaffold can be composed of either a 3D scaffold or hydrogel that provides cells with compatible 3D microenvironment. Ideally, the scaffolds should mimic the different layers of the skeletal muscle connective tissue. This review will discuss the scaffolds and hydrogels potentially used to produce clean meat; and specifically examine the current research trends in upgrading scaffolds from the perspective of their ability to be biodegradable and add nutritional value to the end product. Keywords: Scaffold; Cultured meat; Food Technology; Nutrition; Food Safety