Edible Scaffolds for Cultivated Meat Production

Scaffolds are customisable three-dimensional supports that are compatible with cell culture and thus suitable for a wide range of applications. One emerging application is cultivated meat production. Due to the complexity of cultivated meat products, multiple types of scaffolds would be required for the different manufacturing steps involved. Additionally, as cultivated meat is a food product intended for consumption, there are further requirements in the scaffold's material, properties and method of preparation that are necessary to achieve suitability for use in foods, as well as regulatory requirements for safe use. This chapter focuses on edible scaffolds with applicability in cultivated meat production, exploring established and emerging materials suitable for use in foods, methods for scaffold creation, as well as different types of scaffolds and the diverse roles they play across various stages of the manufacturing process.