Researchers in Israel say they are developing a safe and effective way to make sure lab-grown meat doesn’t become infected with bacteria.

Lab grown, or cultivated meat, production is still in its infancy and is so far authorized for sale in only three countries – Singapore, USA and Israel.

In the coming decades, cellular agriculture could offer huge advantages in terms of cost and sustainability over current methods of farming and slaughtering livestock. But the challenge at the moment is to scale up production to industrial levels while addressing food safety concerns.

A team at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is working on an innovative technology to combat microbial contamination during the production process, as cells inside a cultivator grow into meat.

Farmers using traditional methods to produce beef, pork, chicken and other types of meat routinely use antibiotics, but in so doing they increase our antibiotic resistance.

The evolving cultivated meat industry aims to avoid the use of antibiotics but will still need to ensure the meat does not become contaminated.

The Hebrew University researchers believe the answer is a synthetic cocktails of peptides — short chains of amino acids – called Random Antimicrobial Peptide Mixtures (RPMs) as a safe and effective alternative to traditional antibiotics. 

“By eliminating the need for antibiotics in cellular agriculture, we can enhance consumer safety, regulatory compliance, and environmental sustainability,” said Prof. Zvi Hayouka, lead researcher on the project, conducted with the Singapore-HUJ Alliance for Research and Enterprise (SHARE).

“Our findings demonstrate the immense potential of RPMs as a novel class of antimicrobial agents for cultured meat production.”

The RPMs are effective at killing listeria monocytogenes – bacteria that can survive even in a fridge – and E. Coli, a common source of food-related illnesses.

They do so without harming the stem cells that are crucial for cultivated meat production.

The team at Hebrew University is now exploring industrial applications for the RPMs and how to get regulatory approval to integrate them into commercial cultivated meat production.

Their research paper, entitled “Random antimicrobial peptide mixtures as non-antibiotic antimicrobial agents for cultured meat industry, has been published in the journal Food Chemistry: Molecular Sciences.

As a result of their findings, they’ve also established Prevera, a startup that’s developing food protection proteins to eliminate the need for harmful preservatives, thereby reducing food waste.