Bioreactors for cell multiplication in cultured meat product development

Cultured meat holds a great promise with its potential to satisfy the growing demand for meat while reducing harm to animals and the negative environmental impact of livestock husbandry at the same time. However, high cell numbers are required for sufficient meat production. Consequently, high cell density cultures and an increase in scale are inevitable to bring this novel food alternative to the general public. To that end, a suitable environment needs to be established to facilitate efficient cell numbers and proliferation. A promising way to confront these challenges is by switching from conventional 2D cultures to 3D cultures in bioreactors. In this chapter, we explore bioreactors and their working principles, as well as their role as a vital tool to tackle the challenges of creating suitable growth conditions for anchorage-dependent stem cells and process scale-up. Furthermore, we evaluate measures with the potential to reduce production costs of cultured meat.