The Role of Amino Acid Analysis in Cultured Meat Production

Here at AltaBioscience, we are experienced in the amino acid analysis of cultured meat and cell culture media samples. Amino acid analysis is an important tool for development of the cellular agriculture industry for several key reasons.

Optimisation of Growth Media with Amino Acid Analysis

As cells grow and divide in culture, they consume nutrients, including amino acids, from the media in which they are grown. This reduction in available nutrients can result in suboptimal conditions for the cells to proliferate further, and even cessation of cell growth. Therefore, monitoring of amino acid levels in spent cell culture media can help to optimise growth and proliferation conditions resulting in a high-quality end product.

This can also be important for cultured meat producers in terms of cost, as cell culture media is one of the most significant costs associated with cultivated meat production. By identifying the amino acids that are essential for cell growth, and their required concentrations via amino acid analysis, cultured meat producers can reduce the cost of their products without affecting the quality. This analysis can also aid selection of alternatives to the traditional commercial fetal bovine serum (FBS), the use of which accounts for approximately 60 % of cell-culture-media costs, and which is ethically questionable given that it can be produced from bovine fetuses when female livestock are accidentally slaughtered when they are pregnant. This in turn allows cultured meat products to be brought to market that are more ethically produced and more affordable for consumers.

In addition, a recent article on cultured meat media published in 2022 in NPJ Science of Food (O’Neill et al. 2022) indicated that no one cell culture medium is suitable for culturing multiple cultured meat cell types, so optimisation of media for specific cell types using techniques such as amino acid analysis will be important for the development of this industry.

Optimal Nutrition

Consumers of cultured meat products want to know that their nutritional profile is comparable to that of equivalent conventional meat products. By analysing the amino acid content of both cultured meat products and conventional meat products, amino acid analysis can ensure that cultured meat has a similar amino acid profile to conventional meat, containing all the essential amino acids that are necessary for human health.

Regulatory Compliance

In order to submit a dossier for Novel Food regulatory approval, the chemical properties of cultured meat products must be profiled, including amino acid levels. At AltaBioscience we are accredited to ISO 17025:2017 for all sample types, as our methodology eliminates interference from the sample matrix, so no additional verification work is required for cultured meat products.

However, we understand that generating robust data that stands up to scrutiny during the regulatory process is important to our clients. As such we have carried out many validation studies in the past where customers have been seeking regulatory approval for their products and feel an extra level of validation would be beneficial. We work closely with our customers to tailor validation studies for cultured meat samples specifically to their exact requirements.

Conclusion

Using ion exchange chromatography with post column ninhydrin derivatisation, our amino acid analysis method quantifies both bound and unbound amino acids in cell culture media samples, cultured meat products and their equivalent non-cultured meat products with a high degree of accuracy, and without interference from the sample matrix. This allows optimisation of growth and proliferation conditions for specific cell types, direct comparison of amino acid profiles of cultured meat with their non-cultured equivalents, and accurate protein content analysis and amino acid profiles for regulatory approval.

For further information on analysis of cell culture media and cultured meat products, please contact our team today: E: info@altabioscience.com T:  +44 (0)1527 584495.