Will humanity in the future to eat protein paste made from insects or synthetic meat, one more question. But if it’s meat, I would like to have form and structure as real meat. And it is a vital task for a great number of scientists because in vitro easily grow just formless lumps of protein.
To the cells of the meat have grown in an orderly manner, they should be sown in a frame. This problem was solved long ago in the laboratory, and at the same time it is proved that meat with an ordered structure is better suited for cooking dishes. One problem – the frame is usually a polymer fiber, it is harmless, but who wants to chew plastic? A team of researchers from Penn state and the University of Alabama, decided to try to replace the polymer is corn starch, edible, and popular material.
For the conversion of starch into fiber used in the method of “wet electrospinning”. Starch solution is delivered to a rotating drum to which the substance adheres and the rotation is pulled into a long thread. And the material did not dry up, the whole setup is placed in an alcohol solution. In the design process the installation was that the ideal material for it are the details from the well-known Lego.
First, it is designed for children designer is durable and resistant to prolonged stress. Secondly, plastic is an insulator. Third, all items are very cheap in comparison with traditional laboratory equipment. Finally, it has no compatibility issues with liquids and food products. The first experiments on the production of starch fibers for synthetic meat were successful and now have to figure out how they will grow the cells.
Source — Penn State