World’s first 3D-printed WAGYU BEEF is revealed – with marbling just like the real deal 


The world’s first 3D-printed Wagyu beef has been revealed by scientists, who say it has marbling ‘just like the real thing’ and is grown from stem cells in the lab. 

Most ‘cultured’ meat produced so far has come out like mince rather than steak, composed of simple muscle fibres rather than more complex structures.

However, steaks – particularly from delicate Waygu beef – contain fat, muscle and blood vessels in an intricate structure producing a marbling effect, and this is what the team from Osaka University was able to replicate using 3D printing techniques.

‘This work may help usher in a more sustainable future with widely available cultured meat,’ that is closer to existing products, says study author Dong-Hee Kang.

The team gave no indication on eventual cost of producing the steaks or how long it would take for the product to reach the market. 

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The world’s first 3D-printed Wagyu beef has been revealed by scientists, who say it has marbling ‘just like the real thing’ and is grown from stem cells in the lab

The world's population is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, and with that will come an increasing demand on food, particularly for protein rich foods like beef, according to 'lab-grown wagyu' developers from Osaka University in Japan. Stock image of Wagyu beef

The world’s population is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, and with that will come an increasing demand on food, particularly for protein rich foods like beef, according to ‘lab-grown wagyu’ developers from Osaka University in Japan. Stock image of Wagyu beef

LAB-GROWN STEAKS USING A ‘SWEET’ TECHNIQUE 

To create the unique marbling effect, and multi-layer structure of Wagyu steaks, the team turned to candy.

Kintaro candy is a traditional form of sweet that involved multiple pipes cut into slices and placed together.

At the end the face of Kintaro, also known as Golden Boy, is visible.

For the production of the steaks, the team used two types of Wagyu cells.

These were the bovine satellite cells and adipose-derived stem cells – or cells from body fat. 

Under the right conditions, these ‘multipotent’ cells can be coaxed to turn into every type of cell needed to produce the cultured meat.

Individual fibres including muscle, fat, or blood vessels were fabricated from these cells using bio-printing.

The fibres were then arranged in three dimensions, to reproduce the structure of the real Wagyu meat.

This was then sliced perpendicularly, in a similar way to the traditional Japanese candy to create a ‘steak’.

Wagyu can be translated as ‘Japanese cow’ in English, and is one of the most famous meats in the world for its high content of ‘intramuscular fat’ and marbling. 

It is this marbling effect that provides the rich flavour that also makes it one of the most expensive steaks on the market.

However, current cattle farming techniques considered unsustainable, particularly in terms of climate change emissions, which is one thing driving increased demand for plant-based alternatives and research into cultured meat products like this. 

Jean-Francois Hocquette from the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE), not involved in the research, says the global position on the environmental benefits of lab-grown meat is far from agreed.

‘Only three scientific papers have studied these issues and they do not agree. In any case, only three studies is not enough for robust conclusions,’ he told MailOnline.

‘Currently available “cultured meat” is made of poorly organised muscle fibre cells that fail to reproduce the complex structure of real beef steaks,’ the team said.  

The Japanese team created a new 3D-printing method that was was produced in a way that is similar to that used to make Kintaro candy – a very old traditional sweet formed in a long pipe and cut into slices, with each slice showing the face of Kintaro (Golden Boy), a Japanese folk hero.

Their method creates different fibrous tissues such as muscle, fat, and blood vessels by 3D printing and integrating them.

This produced ‘synthetic meat that looks more like the real thing,’ according to the study authors, who say it could be used to produce other complex structures.

The team started with two types of stem cells, called bovine satellite cells and adipose-derived stem cells (cells from body fat).

Under the right laboratory conditions, these ‘multipotent’ cells can be coaxed to turn into every type of cell needed to produce the cultured meat.

Individual fibres including muscle, fat, or blood vessels were fabricated from these cells using bioprinting.

The fibres were then arranged in three dimensions, following the histological structure, to reproduce the structure of the real Wagyu meat, which was finally sliced perpendicularly, in a similar way to the traditional Japanese candy. 

This process made the reconstruction of the complex meat tissue structure possible in a customisable manner. 

To try and tackle this increased demand, a number of researchers are working on cultured, or lab-grown meat, produced from stem cells from different animals

To try and tackle this increased demand, a number of researchers are working on cultured, or lab-grown meat, produced from stem cells from different animals

‘By improving this technology, it will be possible to not only reproduce complex meat structures, but to also make subtle adjustments to the fat and muscle components,’ said senior author Michiya Matsusaki. 

That is, customers would be able to order cultured meat with their desired amount of fat, based on taste and health considerations.  

‘The main issue of cultured meat will be to move from research to a large-scale commercial and industrial prototype, and only thereafter to a large-scale production. A long journey,’ said Professor Hocquette. 

The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications

Three-quarters of the eco-friendly Generation Z ‘are disgusted by lab-grown meat’ and say they would NOT eat it 

Almost three-in-four members of Australia’s Gen Z are ‘disgusted’ by the idea of lab-grown meat and said they would not eat it instead of animal products, a study found.

Synthetic, lab-grown — or ‘cultured’ — meat is grown in dishes from samples of real animal cells, instead of being sourced from the slaughter of livestock.

Experts believe that a move away from traditional meat production is necessary, given animal welfare concerns and the environmental impact of livestock farming.

A recent study argued that a broad switch to plant-based proteins could remove 16 years’ worth of atmospheric CO2 emissions by 2050 by restoring native vegetation.

Accordingly, many Gen Z and millennials are understood to have taken up veganism or vegetarianism to help mitigate climate change and minimise animal suffering. 

However, the survey of 227 Gen Z Australians found that as many as 72 per cent have reservations about eating cultured meat over its animal-derived forebear.

Nevertheless, 41 per cent of those polled also said that they saw synthetic meat as having the potential to be a viable nutritional source in the future.   



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