In recent years, alternative and cultured meats have been attracting attention as a solution to future food and environmental problems. We have reported the production of cultured Wagyu beef with marbling structure based on tissue engineering technology applying 3D bioprinting. In this paper, we introduce the background of cultured meat and our efforts.

Soybean is a suitable ingredient crop for plant-based meat because of their high protein and lipid content characteristics among cereals and large global production. However, several unpleasant odors derived from fatty acids have been a problem in soybean-derived foods. This paper presents our efforts to reduce unpleasant odors by genetic improvement of soybean fatty acid composition and its advantages as a plant-based meat ingredient.

The recent increase in environmental awareness has led to a growing interest in cellular foods, including cultured meats, which are protein sources made from cells with a low environmental impact. This paper provides an overview of the background behind the interest in cultured meat and explains how it is made. Additionally, the paper focuses on the development of "cultured steak meat". We introduce the method for creating 1 cm square diced cultured steak meat by stacking hydrogel sheets including bovine satellite cells and myoblasts obtained from fresh beef, and report efforts of conducting the first tastings event of cultured meat as a research institute in Japan. Because sensory evaluation has become possible in our laboratory, we anticipate significant advancements in the research and development of creating appetizing cultured meat.