Metabolomics for Cultivated Meats & Seafood

One of the summer events to mention was the 5th Industrializing Cultivated Meats & Seafood summit in Boston (MA) organized by Hanson Wade . Focused on advancing bio-processing to the commercial scale, it brought together industry experts, regulatory organizations, venture capital representatives, as well as service companies capable to support industry growth. Cultivated Meat & Seafood companies shared their experience and challenges. There were representatives from Meatable , Fork & Good, Inc. , BlueNalu , SuperMeat , Finless Foods , Vow , Mewery are just a few to mention. Discussion sessions ranged from the optimization of the bio-processes and streamlining scale up to the funding challenges and entering the consumer market.

As the event highlighted potential benefits of metabolomics, lipidomics and multiomics in both bio-process development (cells and spent media characterization) as well as the final product quality assessment, I would like to talk briefly about this topic.

Metabolomics is one of the "junior" "omics" looking more globally into the small molecules (typically less than 1,500 Daltons). Two well-known approaches are targeted metabolomics and lipidomics (assays with absolute quantification, but a limited number of known metabolites), and a global approach (assays looking into a large panel of metabolites but with limited identification and quantification capabilities).

Characterization of cell lines and media during the development and optimization steps of bio-processing in cultivated meats and seafood industry is one of the most obvious applications of metabolomics and lipidomics use in this industry. As the initial step, both global metabolomics and global lipidomics profiling might be helpful. At the later stages some most important biomarkers might be identified and further focus on the specific panel and quantitative assays may be recommended.

Another logical application of metabolomics in this industry is the assessment of the final product quality. It is well known that the sour taste, sweet taste, bitter taste and spiciness of foods are defined by the presence of the specific small molecules. Similar works for the aroma and the colour of food products. Nutritional characteristics can be evaluated with metabolomics too.

In respect to the meat quality assessment, there is a recent open access paper "Metabolome-Based Genome-Wide Association Study of Duck Meat Leads to Novel Genetic and Biochemical Insights" published in Advanced Science. The authors decided to study biochemical basis of meat nutrition and flavor. 3431 metabolites and 702 volatiles in 423 skeletal muscle samples are profiled from a gradient consanguinity segregating population generated by Pekin duck × Liancheng duck crosses using metabolomic approaches. It was found that 568 metabolites and volatiles correlated with 7 meat quality traits (water loss, lightness, redness, yellowness, shear force, pH, and crude fat). These metabolites could provide both macronutrients and micronutrients, function as flavor precursors and determine unique meat flavors, and facilitate meat processing through complex chemical reactions. Authors note that the rapid development of metabolomics techniques enable researchers to look into the complex meat quality issue.

In summary, I would like to highlight that metabolomics and lipidomics are powerful tools which can support the progress of cultivated meat and seafood in their way from the bench to the consumer. Both, bio-processing conditions monitoring and the characterization of the final product may benefit from this "omics".

Small molecules can make a big impact into the process and the final outcome. Our insights into their content and quantity will speed up the development of the cultivated meats and seafood.