Norwegian scientists use kelp to cultivate lab-grown meat without animals

In a laboratory in Norway, scientists are working to take meat production out of the barn and into the lab – using kelp. Senior research scientist Hanne Haslene-Hox and her colleagues at SINTEF, alongside researchers from Nofima, are exploring how to grow cultured meat more sustainably by replacing conventional inputs like fetal calf serum and synthetic microbeads with bioresources from the sea and food industry by-products.

“How are we going to make animal proteins in a way that does not involve animals at all, or to a much lesser extent?” asked Haslene-Hox, summarizing the central question driving the research.

Cultured meat has been in development for over a decade, but the technology still faces challenges. The first lab-grown burger, made in 2013, cost €250,000 [about US$267,000]. Much of the cost and complexity comes from the need to grow muscle cells in sterile, nutrient-rich environments using equipment that isn’t practical for large-scale food production. For example, cultivating one kilogram of meat on traditional culture bottles would require 700 square meters of surface area – roughly equivalent to ten typical Norwegian apartments.

To make lab-grown meat scalable, the SINTEF and Nofima team is turning to microcarriers: tiny beads on which cells grow. These are often made from dextran, a polysaccharide derived from sugar. But as Haslene-Hox points out, “you can’t eat these inedible beads.” The process of removing the cells from these carriers is resource-intensive and causes high cell loss, which reduces efficiency and increases waste.

Instead, the researchers are developing edible, biodegradable microcarriers from materials such as kelp, seaweed, and plant residues. These materials are abundant in Norway and can serve as both the physical substrate for muscle cell attachment and part of the final food product.

“We’re trying to take bioresources that are left over from producing other things, like seaweed and kelp, and use them to make microbeads that the cells can grow on and that can then become part of the food,” said Haslene-Hox. “Our project is about making microcarriers that the cells can grow on, and scaling that up in a big stirred-suspension tank.”

The second focus of the project is finding alternatives to fetal calf serum, which is costly, inconsistent, and unsuitable for use in food. Instead, the researchers are testing liquid nutrients made from food industry by-products such as vegetable waste, fish farming leftovers, eggshells, and poultry skin.

One promising area of study involves the inner membrane of eggshells. Known for its role in supporting chick embryo development and aiding in wound healing, the membrane is being tested as a substrate for muscle cells. “We’ve looked at whether muscle cells are able to attach to particles from eggshell membranes or whether we can mix them with alginate to get the cells to attach,” said Haslene-Hox.

So far, the team has identified several promising materials that support healthy muscle cell growth. The next phase involves scaling up cultivation in stirred suspension tanks and testing whether the cells remain attached to the microbeads during agitation.

This research could represent a step forward in the effort to commercialize sustainable cultivated meat, minimizing reliance on animals while tapping into Norway’s abundant marine and agricultural by-products. The challenge ahead, as Haslene-Hox and her team know well, is whether these innovations can hold up under industrial-scale conditions.