Cultured Meat: A Multidimensional Review of Technological, Nutritional, Ethical, and Regulatory Advances (2020–2025)

TL;DR

Cultured meat could offer a sustainable protein alternative, but faces challenges in technology, nutrition, regulation, and consumer acceptance.

Contribution

This review provides a multidisciplinary analysis of cultured meat's recent advances and challenges from 2020–2025.

Findings

Cultured meat faces technological hurdles like optimizing cell culture and bioreactor scalability.

Nutritional composition often lags behind conventional meat, requiring improvements in protein and lipid content.

Consumer acceptance is higher among younger, educated, and health-conscious individuals.

Abstract

Global food systems face increasing environmental, ethical, and health‐related challenges, prompting the search for sustainable protein alternatives. Cultured meat has emerged as a promising option, offering potential benefits such as reduced environmental impact, improved animal welfare, and nutritional customization. However, large‐scale implementation remains limited by technological, economic, ethical, and social constraints. This scoping review synthesizes recent scientific literature (2020–2025) addressing the technological, nutritional, regulatory, ethical, and consumer acceptance dimensions of cultured meat. The analysis integrates multidisciplinary findings to identify major trends, research gaps, and challenges to the transition from laboratory development to market readiness. Persistent technological hurdles include optimizing cell culture conditions, scaffold design, and bioreactor scalability. The nutritional composition, particularly protein and lipid content, often lags behind conventional meat and requires improvement to meet dietary and sensory expectations. Regulatory frameworks remain inconsistent worldwide, with few markets approving commercial sales. Ethical debates continue over animal‐derived inputs and product “naturalness.” Consumer acceptance is influenced by psychological, cultural, and demographic factors, with greater acceptance among younger, educated, and health‐conscious individuals. Ensuring long‐term viability will require standardized safety regulations, cost‐effective production systems, and transparent consumer engagement. Cultured meat represents a transformative innovation with the potential to reshape global protein production, but its success depends on interdisciplinary strategies that balance sustainability, safety, ethics, and public trust.

Figures