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   https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13213495  

   St_Pierre, Skyler R; Kuhl, Ellen (November 2024, Foods)

   The texture of meat is one of the most important features to mimic when developing meat analogs. Both protein source and processing method impact the texture of the final product. We can distinguish three types of mechanical tests to quantify the textural differences between meat and meat analogs: puncture type, rheological torsion tests, and classical mechanical tests of tension, compression, and bending. Here, we compile the shear force and stiffness values of whole and comminuted meats and meat analogs from the two most popular tests for meat, the Warner–Bratzler shear test and the double-compression texture profile analysis. Our results suggest that, with the right fine-tuning, today’s meat analogs are well capable of mimicking the mechanics of real meat. While Warner–Bratzler shear tests and texture profile analysis provide valuable information about the tenderness and sensory perception of meat, both tests suffer from a lack of standardization, which limits cross-study comparisons. Here, we provide guidelines to standardize meat testing and report meat stiffness as the single most informative mechanical parameter. Collecting big standardized data and sharing them with the community at large could empower researchers to harness the power of generative artificial intelligence to inform the systematic development of meat analogs with desired mechanical properties and functions, taste, and sensory perception. 

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2. “Surrealing MEAT: Making meat realer (and better?) through technoscience"

   Efstathiou, Sophia; Kendig, Catherine (November 2024, https://meatigation.no/webinar/)

   Rethinking MEAT: Ethics, Practices, Politics. Organized by KLIMAFORSK collaboration project MEATigation: Towards sustainable meat-use in Norwegian food practices for climate mitigation. Supported by Norges Forskningsrådet. 

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3. Recent advances in scaffolding biomaterials for cultivated meat

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bioadv.2024.213897  

   Fasciano, Samantha; Wheba, Anas; Ddamulira, Christopher; Wang, Shue (September 2024, Biomaterials Advances)
4. Discovering the mechanics of artificial and real meat

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cma.2023.116236  

   St_Pierre, Skyler R; Rajasekharan, Divya; Darwin, Ethan C; Linka, Kevin; Levenston, Marc E; Kuhl, Ellen (October 2023, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering)
5. Scalable Processes for Culturing Meat Using Edible Scaffolds

   https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-food-072023-034451  

   Kawecki, N Stephanie; Chen, Kathleen K; Smith, Corinne S; Xie, Qingwen; Cohen, Julian M; Rowat, Amy C (June 2024, Annual Review of Food Science and Technology)

   There is increasing consumer demand for alternative animal protein products that are delicious and sustainably produced to address concerns about the impacts of mass-produced meat on human and planetary health. Cultured meat has the potential to provide a source of nutritious dietary protein that both is palatable and has reduced environmental impact. However, strategies to support the production of cultured meats at the scale required for food consumption will be critical. In this review, we discuss the current challenges and opportunities of using edible scaffolds for scaling up the production of cultured meat. We provide an overview of different types of edible scaffolds, scaffold fabrication techniques, and common scaffold materials. Finally, we highlight potential advantages of using edible scaffolds to advance cultured meat production by accelerating cell growth and differentiation, providing structure to build complex 3D tissues, and enhancing the nutritional and sensory properties of cultured meat. 

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