I'm talking about while you are growing the meat, whether it be in a natural system that is self-regulating and with an immune system, or in a vat where any contamination will spread rampantly. That's one of the biggest problems with lab-grown meat: if you make it at a scale that is economically feasible, the chance for contamination is so high that very few batches will make it through the process, and will have to be discarded instead.
We do large batch cheeses and beers and other things like that; which are similar enough that they'll offer useful pointers. "Meat" cultures might well be more subject to contamination because of the conditions required, but still. It's not a new problems and there's solutions that have worked for similar cases.
I do not think they will be able to compete economically with the backyard chicken, for example; but I'm not worried that they can't produce a safe product.
Those are much simpler yeasts and molds being cultivated. Meat cells are much more complex from an inputs/outputs point of view, and much more prone to contamination, especially at scales that are economically feasible.
I'm not an expert but it might be that the cultures we have chosen for beer and cheese and so on are those that outcompete most others while still not being harmful in by-products to us. This might take a while for lab grown meat.
Can't we solve this at least temporarily with a sodium rich environment? It seems to be effective for safe fermentation. I have no idea whether the biochemical reactions necessary to produce the meat though would be inhibited if we did this.
Try injecting yourself with saltwater and see what happens. The osmotic effects won't just affect the undesired cells. It will also affect the desired cells.
talking down to people while you're telling them not to do something harmful usually just inflames their interest in doing it. look at how calling people stupid or evil for not following covid precautions or for looking into poorly-studied treatments worked out. no need for a patriarchal superiority complex here
>talking down to people while you're telling them not to do something harmful usually just inflames their interest in doing it. look at how calling people stupid or evil for not following covid precautions or for looking into poorly-studied treatments worked out.
