Quest Meat, a UK-based ingredients developer for the cell-based industry, has developed microcarrier replacements. These replacements claim to improve the efficiency of meat cultivation, enabling scalable and sustainable operations.

The microcarrier replacements provide an edible and food-safe alternative to the costly, non-edible microcarriers currently available. The key features of the replacements include providing meat-like flavor and sensory attributes and large surface areas for cell attachment, facilitating quick cell growth.

Analyst QuickTake: Microcarriers are matrices that allow for the growth of adherent cells in bioreactors to overcome surface area limitations. While these edible microcarriers claim to increase the scalability of meat cultivation, companies like Umami Meats , BlueNalu , and SCiFi Foods have begun developing cultivated meat through single-cell line suspension, eliminating the need for microcarriers.