[tambourine_man]

Interesting stuff!

I've read that contamination is a huge issue, essentially, bacteria grows much better and faster at the substrate than mammalian cells. So, how do you avoid inadvertently cultivating smelly plaques instead of delicious meat?

Or is that not really an issue and I'm misinformed?

Best of luck. We really need it.

[vpribble]

Contamination is definitely a problem for cultivated meat. It is one of the leading risks when scaling because if the reactor is contaminated at all, you could lose entire batches of meat, and as you can imagine, this is a huge cost hit. To avoid this, cultivated meat is grown in sterile, clean environments. The same kind of equipment you'd find in a hospital (autoclaves) is used to sterilize the equipment common in cultivated meat. There are two basic ideas for preventing contamination. One is to use single use bioreactors, which are sterile after manufacturing. This is extremely common in the biopharma industry, and is preferred because it doesn't require complex cleaning systems. Of course, anything that is single use ends up in a landfill, so thats part of the trade off as well. The other option is to use reusable bioreactors. These require a steam clean after each batch, which adds to the overall operational and build costs of the reactor. This can also generate waste products which have to be handled. Maintaining cleanliness is a challenge, but with proper laboratory practices, and the right kind of bioreactor, contamination should be less of a problem.

[iamdvlpr]

I'm also assuming that with your system engineering background, you're also limiting personnel access to the reactors or better, to the rooms where they will be located as well as all security measures to avoid social engineering hacking into the facilities, right Vincent?

Congrats on the initiative, just absolutely fantastic!

[vpribble]

Of course! As the factories get larger and larger, security becomes even more important, and traditional methods such as limiting access, badge-in/ badge-out, and access codes would be utilized.

[robbles]

Do these sterility requirements have an impact on the food safety concerns for the final product? e.g. does the meat end up either completely ruined vs. totally safe to eat raw? Just curious, I have no plans to eat raw cultivated meat :)

[aendruk]

> I have no plans to eat raw cultivated meat :)

This could actually be one of the new doors it opens. Perfectly sterile sashimi can travel farther.

[Jorge1o1]

One of the most popular articles on HN with a whopping 900+ comments was about exactly this issue.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28621288

According to Paul Wood, the threat of bacterial contamination makes cultivated meat extremely expensive and un-cost-competitive.