Cost-effective production of meaty aroma from porcine cells for hybrid cultivated meat

Cultivated meats are typically hybrids of animal cells and plant proteins, but their high production costs limit their scalability. This study explores a cost-effective alternative by hypothesizing that controlling the Maillard and lipid thermal degradation reactions in pure cells can create a meaty aroma that could be extracted from minimal cell quantities. Using spontaneously immortalized porcine myoblasts and fibroblasts adapted to suspension culture with a 1 % serum concentration, we developed a method to isolate flavor precursors via freeze-thawing. Thermal reaction conditions were optimized to enhance aroma compound production. Chemical profiling demonstrates that myoblasts produce an aroma profile closer to pork meat than fibroblasts, although serum reduction decreased aroma yield. Sensory analysis supported these findings. Incorporating the optimized aroma extract – derived from just 1.2 % (w/w) cells – into plant proteins resulted in a hybrid cultivated meat with 78.5 % sensory similarity to pork meat, but with a significant 80 % reduction in production costs.