How Cultured Chicken is Made

A Deep Dive into Cellular Agriculture Production

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Overview

Cultured chicken (also called “cell-based” or “cultivated” chicken) is produced by growing avian muscle cells in bioreactors — essentially brewing meat instead of raising and slaughtering animals. This page explains the production process in detail and how each step affects production costs.

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Why Chicken?

Several factors make chicken an attractive first target for cultured meat:

Factor	Advantage	Source
Cell biology	Chicken satellite cells can be cultured effectively and show robust viability	Kim et al. 2024
Spontaneous immortalization	Some avian cells can divide indefinitely without genetic modification	Stout et al. 2022, Nature Food
Market size	Chicken is the most consumed meat globally (~130 million tonnes/year)	FAO 2023
Animal welfare	~70 billion chickens slaughtered annually vs ~300 million cattle	FAO 2023
Growth factors	Similar FGF-2/IGF-1 requirements to bovine (~10-100 ng/mL optimal)	Stout et al. 2023

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Step 1: Cell Banking

What Happens

A cell bank is a frozen inventory of starter cells that can be thawed and expanded for production. These cells are taken from a living animal (via biopsy) or from cell lines that have been immortalized for continuous growth.

Cell Types Used

Cell Type	Description	Pros	Cons	Source
Satellite cells (myoblasts)	Muscle stem cells that differentiate into muscle fibers	Natural muscle tissue, good texture	Limited doublings (~50-80 before senescence)	Ding et al. 2018
Immortalized lines	Cells modified to divide indefinitely	Consistent, scalable, no senescence	Regulatory complexity, GMO perception	Stout et al. 2022
iPSCs	Induced pluripotent stem cells	Can become any cell type	Complex differentiation protocols	Guan et al. 2022

Cost Impact

Cell banking is a one-time setup cost that’s amortized over many production runs. A well-characterized cell bank can support years of production (GFI 2021).

Note

Key insight: The “Hayflick limit” (doubling limit) of cells matters enormously. Primary satellite cells can only double ~50-80 times before senescing (Hayflick 1965). Immortalized lines eliminate this constraint but require regulatory approval.

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Step 2: Seed Train (Scale-Up)

What Happens

Cells are progressively expanded from small flasks to larger and larger bioreactors, typically increasing volume by ~10× at each step:

Cost Impact

The seed train phase (Humbird 2021):

• Uses expensive, small-scale equipment (research-grade, often single-use)
• Requires manual handling and skilled labor ($50-150/hour fully loaded)
• Consumes high-quality media (often pharma-grade at $5-20/L)

This is why achieving high cell densities is critical — if you can grow cells to 200 g/L instead of 30 g/L, you need far fewer reactor transfers and less total media.

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Step 3: Production Bioreactors

The Core Technology

Production-scale bioreactors are the heart of cultured meat manufacturing. They must:

1. Maintain sterility — Any contamination means losing the entire batch ($100K-$1M loss)
2. Supply oxygen — Cells need O₂ but are shear-sensitive
3. Remove CO₂ — Metabolic waste that acidifies media
4. Control temperature — Typically 37°C ± 0.5°C for mammalian cells
5. Provide nutrients — Via media perfusion or batch feeding

Bioreactor Types

Type	Description	Scale	Cost Range	Source
Stirred-tank	Traditional design with impeller mixing	1-20,000 L	$50-500/L (pharma)	Humbird 2021
Air-lift	Bubbles provide mixing and oxygenation	1-50,000 L	$30-200/L	GFI 2021
Packed-bed	Cells grow on scaffolds, media flows through	10-1,000 L	$100-300/L	Allan et al. 2019
Custom food-grade	Simplified designs for food production	1,000-100,000 L	$10-50/L (target)	Risner et al. 2021

Important

This is a pivotal cost driver. Pharma-grade stainless steel bioreactors cost $50-500/L installed (Humbird 2021). If cultured meat can use simplified food-grade designs (similar to beer brewing at $5-15/L), costs could drop by 10×.

Batch vs. Perfusion

The media turnover parameter in our model captures this:

• Turnover = 1: Batch mode (same media throughout)
• Turnover = 5-10: Perfusion (replace media multiple times)

Cell densities of 100-200 g/L have been demonstrated in perfusion systems (Clincke et al. 2013).

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Step 4: Media Composition

The “Food” for Cells

Cell culture media contains everything cells need to grow:

Component	Function	Cost Driver	Source
Amino acids	Building blocks for proteins	Hydrolysates vs. pure amino acids	Humbird 2021
Glucose	Energy source	Commodity (~$0.50/kg)	Market data
Vitamins	Metabolic cofactors	B-complex, etc.
Minerals/salts	Osmotic balance, enzyme function	Cheap (<$0.10/L)
Lipids	Cell membrane building	Moderate
Growth factors	Signaling proteins (FGF, IGF, TGF-β)	55-95% of media cost at research scale	Specht 2020

The Serum-Free Challenge

Traditional cell culture uses fetal bovine serum (FBS) — a complex mixture that provides growth factors, hormones, and attachment proteins. Problems:

• Expensive: $200-1,000/L depending on grade (Sigma-Aldrich pricing)
• Variable: Batch-to-batch inconsistency
• Ethical: Derived from fetal calves — defeats purpose of avoiding animal slaughter
• Limited supply: ~500,000 L/year globally (van der Valk et al. 2018)

The cultured meat industry must use serum-free media. All approved cultured meat products to date use serum-free formulations (UPSIDE Foods, GOOD Meat).

Hydrolysates: The Big Win for Amino Acids

Hydrolysates are enzymatically digested proteins from plants (soy, wheat) or yeast. They provide complete amino acid profiles at food-grade prices:

Media Type	Cost ($/L)	Source
Pharma-grade amino acids	$1.00 - $4.00	Humbird 2021
Hydrolysate-based	$0.20 - $1.20	O’Neill et al. 2021

Tip

Key insight: Hydrolysates can reduce amino acid costs by 70-90%. Multiple studies have validated their use for muscle cell culture (Stout et al. 2023, Ng & Zheng 2024).

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Step 5: Growth Factors — The Pivotal Challenge

What Are Growth Factors?

Growth factors are signaling proteins that tell cells to proliferate and differentiate. They bind to cell surface receptors and trigger intracellular cascades:

Key Growth Factors for Cultured Meat

Factor	Function	Current Price	Target Price	Source
FGF-2 (bFGF)	Proliferation, maintain stemness	~$50,000/g	$1-10/g	CEN 2023
IGF-1	Proliferation, differentiation	~$10,000/g	$1-10/g	Sigma pricing
TGF-β	Differentiation, ECM production	~$1,000,000/g	$10-100/g	GFI 2021
EGF	Proliferation	~$5,000/g	$1-10/g	Market data

Why Are They So Expensive?

Current growth factors are produced for medical research markets where volumes are tiny (milligrams), purity requirements are extreme, and customers pay premium prices. The cultured meat industry needs tonnes per year at food-grade purity (Specht 2020).

Solutions Being Developed

Approach	Mechanism	Status	Target Price	Source
Precision fermentation	E. coli/yeast produce GFs at scale	Scaling up	$10-100/g	GFI 2024
Plant molecular farming	Transgenic plants express GFs	Pilots	$1-10/g	BioBetter
Autocrine cell lines	Engineer cells to make their own GFs	Proof of concept	~$0/g	Stout et al. 2023
Small molecule substitutes	Chemicals that activate GF receptors	Research	<$1/g	Stout et al. 2023
Thermostable variants	FGF2-G3 with 20-day half-life	Commercial	Reduces usage	Enantis

Important

This is THE pivotal uncertainty. If any of these approaches succeeds at scale, growth factors become negligible (<$1/kg chicken). If none succeed, growth factors could be >$100/kg — making cultured meat uneconomic at scale. See GFI’s analysis for detailed technical roadmaps.

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Step 6: Harvest & Processing

Cell Harvest

After cells reach target density, they’re separated from the media using standard bioprocessing techniques (Rathore et al. 2020):

• Centrifugation: Spin to separate cells (~$0.10-0.50/kg)
• Filtration: Tangential flow filtration through membranes
• Settling: Allow cells to settle naturally (slowest but cheapest)

Forming Product (Downstream Processing)

For unstructured products (ground meat, nuggets):

• Mix cell paste with binders, fats, flavors
• Form into shapes using standard food equipment
• Minimal processing needed
• Cost: ~$2-5/kg (Risner et al. 2021)

For structured products (chicken breast, steak):

• Requires scaffolds or 3D printing to organize fibers
• Cells must align into muscle-like structures
• Much more complex
• Cost: ~$5-20/kg additional (GFI 2021)

Note

Our model includes an optional “downstream processing” toggle that adds $2-15/kg for structured products.

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Cost Breakdown Summary

Source: Cost breakdown ranges from Humbird 2021, Risner et al. 2021, GFI 2021.

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Further Resources

Video & Process Explainers

• Good Food Institute: What is Cultivated Meat? — Interactive overview with visuals
• UPSIDE Foods: Our Process — How their EPIC facility works
• Mosa Meat: How We Make Real Meat — Cell-to-burger process explained
• PBS News Hour: How ‘Lab-Grown’ Meat is Made — Independent documentary

Academic Papers (Key Sources)

• Risner et al. (2021) - “Preliminary Techno-Economic Assessment of Animal Cell-Based Meat” — UC Davis cost model
• Humbird (2021) - “Scale-Up Economics of Cultured Meat” — Independent TEA analysis
• Stout et al. (2022) - “Immortalized Chicken Cells” — Spontaneous immortalization in avian cells
• GFI State of the Industry Report 2024 — Annual industry overview

Interactive Tools

• UC Davis ACBM Calculator — Academic cost model
• This Dashboard: Interactive Monte Carlo Model — Play with parameters

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