Possibilities for Engineered Insect Tissue as a Food Source

Abstract

Due to significant environmental concerns associated with industrial livestock farming, it is vital to accelerate the development of sustainable food production methods. Cellular agriculture may offer a more efficient production paradigm by using cell culture, as opposed to whole animals, to generate foods like meats, eggs, and dairy products. However, the cost-effective scale-up of cellular agriculture systems requires addressing key constraints in core research areas: (1) cell sources, (2) growth media, (3) scaffolding biomaterials, and (4) bioreactor design. Here we summarize work in the area of insect cell cultures as a promising avenue to address some of these needs. We also review current applications of insect cell culture and tissue engineering, provide an overview of insect myogenesis and discuss various properties of insect cells that indicate suitability for use in food production systems. Compared to mammalian or avian cultures, invertebrate cell cultures require fewer resources and are more resilient to changes in environmental conditions, as they can thrive in a wide range of temperature, pH and osmolarity conditions. Alterations necessary for large-scale production are relatively simple to achieve with insect cells, including immortalization, serum-free media adaptation and suspension culture. Additional benefits include ease of transfection, nutrient density, and relevance to seafood organisms. To advance insect-based tissue engineering for food purposes, it is necessary to develop methods to regulate the differentiation of insect cells into relevant cell types, characterize cell interactions with biomaterials with an eye toward 3D culture, design supportive bioreactor systems and quantify nutritional profiles of cultured biomass.

Plant-based and cell-based approaches to meat production

“…In 2014, a study speculating on the technical, societal, and economic factors of village-scale CBM production calculated a cost range of $11-520/kg dependent on the price of growth medium 24 . Invertebrate (e.g., insect, crustacean) cell culture may present a more cost-efficient platform for CBM production based on the unique properties of insect cells (e.g., xeno-free growth medium, high-density suspension culture) 26,27 . Select companies are targeting high-value products (e.g., foie gras, bluefin tuna, kangaroo meat) in order to lower the bar for reaching price parity.…”

Insects as food and feed, a new emerging agricultural sector: a review

“…Cultured meat, in-vitro cultivation of animal cells, is being researched for the last 20 years as a sustainable alternative to the common meat production using slaughtered animals (Stephens et al, 2019). For the first time it has now been proposed to use insect cell cultures instead of mammalian or avian cell cultures as they seem to require fewer resources and are more resilient to changes in environmental conditions (Rubio et al, 2019).…”

Life cycle assessment of edible insects (Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis larvae) as a future protein and fat source

“…Moreover, insects as mini-livestock have many environmental benefits and similar nutritional quality compared with conventional livestock production systems 1 . The primarily studies show that edible insect cell culture also may provide a more cost-efficient platform of cell-based meat system, according to the unique properties of insect cells [47][48][49] . Edible insects have the potential to be the future food given to their positive nutritional properties and relatively low environmental impacts; however, there are still food safety concerns associated with the consumption of insects, namely, the microbiological and chemical health risk 50,51 .…”