Future of food

Engineered food has taken the step out of laboratories and started entering the market. However, whether engineered food technologies present a real opportunity for systemic change will depend on research advances, socio-political and economic considerations and acceptance by consumers.

Foods created by tissue engineering have captured imaginations within the food systems community. In this issue, we explore how cellular agriculture aligns with food systems priorities of sustainability, health, equity and economy.

Animal cells can be cultured in vitro to fabricate meat-like, edible products with the aim to provide a sustainable source of animal protein while improving animal welfare and reducing the environmental impact of meat production. CellX is a China-based startup company that aims to commercialize cultured meat in China.

Silk protein can be applied as an edible food coating to extend the shelf life of food products by slowing dehydration and reducing oxidative stresses. Here, we highlight the commercialization of Mori Silk, from lab discovery and first proof of concept to manufacturing, scale-up, field validation, regulatory approval and forward-looking challenges.

Laboratories around the world are racing to create the perfect piece of meat. But, questions remain about how cellular agriculture can help with the world’s growing agricultural challenges.

The scientific narrative around food biotechnologies, such as genetically modified crops, is ineffective at predicting their role in the development and change of agricultural practices and food. Here, we suggest placing the scientific discussion of new food technologies in the context of the political and economic forces that shape agriculture.

The proposed benefits of cultured meat fail to track our moral intuitions because they are focused on the practical aspect of cultured meat production and consumption. A virtue-oriented approach can show cultured meat in a different light.

The burgeoning field of cultured meat is racing to achieve the minimal standards required for market access. We argue that the focus must shift to a higher, mission-based standard based on transparency and collective processes.

Industry and governments are increasingly investing in cellular agriculture. However, the trajectory of these technologies is likely to reinforce many current food system problems, particularly power asymmetries.

Technical and social perspectives can highlight the interconnectedness of people, planet and profit in cultured meat production. The sector must engage in the socioeconomics and politics of their technology to avoid greenwashing and enact effective change.

Robotics technologies are finding their way into the food production chain, from agriculture robots ‘working’ on farms, to 3D food printers generating customized dishes in the kitchen. In this Viewpoint, two roboticists, Hod Lipson and Salah Sukkarieh, discuss the possible roles of robotics in shaping the future of food, highlighting how robots may be able to produce more, healthier and sustainable foods with fewer resources and a lower carbon footprint.

Gene editing may shape the future of foods, providing a sustainable solution for obtaining food products of high yield and nutritional value. This Review discusses the capabilities and applications of CRISPR–Cas-based gene editing of food, highlighting the technologies for improving the nutritional value of crops and animal and probiotic food products, and summarizing regulatory policies worldwide.

Crop yield is stagnating in many parts of the world, and climate change threatens the worldwide agricultural system. This Review presents a comprehensive overview of current development leveraging genomic analyses and revolutionary new plant breeding technologies to enhance food crop traits through agricultural biotechnology.

Cell co-culture can assist the fabrication process of cultured meat and improve the quality of the final product. This Review discusses relevant cell types and co-culture techniques, and examines their use for cultivated meat production.

Multiple stable cell lines will be needed for cultivated meat scale-up and industrial production. This Review explores the potential of myogenic, adipogenic and extracellular matrix-producing adult stem cells and embryonic or inducible pluripotent stem cells for their proliferative and differentiation capacity, necessary for cultivated meat production.

Microbial production of food and cosmetics is a promising technology with which to obtain sustainable and environmentally friendly compounds. This Review discusses the production of food and cosmetic compounds using metabolically engineered microorganisms and the systems metabolic engineering strategies that can be used to develop industrially competitive microbial strains and processes.

Technologies from synthetic biology can be applied to traditional practices in winemaking. Possibilities beyond natural microbial communities exist to improve predictive capabilities for the winemaker vintage to vintage, and introduce new characteristics to wine.

Cellular agriculture can be applied for the production of milk bioactives for infant nutrition to bring infant formula functionality closer to human milk. This Review discusses cell-based biotechnology approaches, applying microbial-based (precision fermentation) or cell culture-based methods, to produce functional and complex milk bioactives.

Producing meat without the drawbacks of conventional animal agriculture would greatly contribute to future food and nutrition security. This Review Article covers biological, technological, regulatory and consumer acceptance challenges in this developing field of biotechnology.

Computer-aided food engineering (CAFE) drives high-level innovations in food safety and quality. The multiscale structure of foods requires novel modelling paradigms. This Review explores current CAFE modelling frameworks and computational approaches and the challenges to introducing computer-aided engineering in food-manufacturing processes.

Conventional farming systems are susceptible to various sources of stress, but microalgae, mycoprotein and mealworm can offer healthy and more sustainable diets. This study highlights what makes future foods farming systems resilient and how to unlock their potential.

When plants are under stress, the over-accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) leads to phytotoxicity and growth inhibition. This Review examines the current approaches of applying ROS-scavenging and ROS-triggering nanomaterials to plants to enhance stress resistance and explores their delivery pathways.

Nanotechnology holds great application potential in plant agriculture. This Review Article identifies the technological readiness, addresses the primary barriers to adopting nano-enabled technologies and proposes a roadmap to advance nanotechnology-enabled agriculture.

Immortalized chicken fibroblasts grown in serum-free media yield up to 36% w/v. Direct transdifferentiation generates adipocytes that, when blended with extruded soy protein, produce cultured chicken comparable with chicken breast.

Bovine satellite cells undergoing myogenic differentiation in a chemically defined, serum-free medium are comparable to those undergoing serum starvation—demonstrating the suitability of this formulation for cultured meat production.

An anticipatory life cycle assessment of ovalbumin produced using cellular agriculture demonstrates sustainability gains with limited trade-offs, particularly when produced using low-carbon energy sources.

A data mining and machine learning approach for improving surveillance reveals clinically relevant antimicrobial resistance profiles across chicken farms, abattoirs and environments in three provinces in China.

Coupling a two-step electrochemical system that converts CO₂ to acetate with photovoltaics increases solar-to-food energy conversion efficiency, providing an alternative route to produce food from carbon dioxide and electricity, independent of biological photosynthesis.

A scalable, sustainable and cost-effective approach was developed to synthesize non-toxic, biodegradable pullulan fibres containing naturally derived antimicrobial agents. This food packaging system was tested on avocado and shows potential to enhance food safety while reducing food waste.

The seed coating consists of a silk/trehalose inner layer containing rhizobacteria and a pectin/carboxymethylcellulose outer layer that reswells upon sowing and acts as a water jacket. Coated common bean seeds showed better plant establishment in semi-arid soil.

Accurately determining the concentrations of NH₄⁺ and NO₃⁻ in the soil is important for optimizing nitrogen fertilizer application, but the standard laboratory testing approaches are expensive and slow. A low-cost technology that combines point-of-use sensor measurements, weather and timing data with a machine learning model can rapidly and accurately determine and predict soil nitrogen levels.

Animal skeletal muscle cell culture has the potential to provide new protein sources without the need for conventional animal agriculture. Ben-Ayre et. al. address one of the challenges of growing cell-based meat in vitro by using textured soy protein as an extracellular matrix scaffold. This approach allowed three-dimensional skeletal muscle cell development to produce a meat-like product for human consumption.