Animal welfare | Obtained by slaughter of animal | Slaughter-free method of production by cell agriculture |
Animal undergoes pain or stress during rearing, transport and in lairage | A small amount of tissue biopsies or explants needed for obtaining stem cells |
With proper stunning, pain may be reduced to a great extent | Harvesting fetal embryonic stem cells considered painless method |
Need large number of animals to fulfil meat demand | Require few animals for supplying stem cells for meat production |
Availability of meat from wild/ exotic/ rare species is not ethically and legally allowed | Make possible of production of meat of wild/ rare or exotic animals as rhino sausage, tiger nuggets |
Food security and safety | Production process warrants strict quality checks | Whole process is carried out under strict hygiene and sanitary conditions |
Higher manual contact and large variations in animal production practices affect the quality | A novel process and does not depends upon animal handling and managemental practices except for harvesting stem cells |
The feed and other inputs change quality of meat to a small extent | Nutritional quality of cultured meat largely affected by incorporation of various ingredients in growth media |
Compositional modifications are difficult | Compositional modifications are very easy |
Higher risk of antibiotic residues and microbial contamination, depending upon the managemental and feeding practices | Very low risk of antibiotic residues or microbial contaminations |
Sustainability | Higher water and carbon foot-print | Low water and carbon foot-print |
Causes environmental pollution and unable to sustain high production of meat in future | Environmental friendly, sustainable, green technology |
Resource intensive, need high amount of water, land and energy inputs | Resource extensive, theoretically one cell line can feed whole world |
Large land requirement for animal farming and agriculture for production of fodder and grains | Less land requirement and may use horizontal space |
Waste disposal of agriculture farming, animal rearing, slaughtering and meat processing poses a huge challenge | Waste disposal is far less as compared to conventional meat production, media waste treatment and disposal at an industrial scale may require attention |
Cause higher emission of GHGs leading to ozone depletion and global warming | No significant emission of GHGs by application of innovative technologies |
Process characteristics | Production of meat takes more time due to rearing animals to slaughter age | Fast process and production at artificial environment |
Energy is diverted towards principal product meat along with a range of by-products | Full energy is diverted towards production of principal product |
Animal reared mostly at rural areas and transported to slaughter house/ processing facilities | The whole production process most likely to be set up mostly at urban areas |
Not suitable for long-term space explorations and settlement | Suitable for long-term space explorations and settlement |
The production site is mostly away from consumption areas | The in-vitro production site can be placed near to demand areas |
Lowering production will preserve biodiversity | Higher production will decrease conventional meat production and preserve biodiversity |
Stress prior to slaughter leads to deterioration of meat quality such as PSE, DFD | These pre-slaughter stress factor do not apply in in-vitro meat |
Religious aspects | Slaughtering of animals should be done with proper following of religious rules | Cell harvesting as per religious laws and culture media should have religiously acceptable ingredients |
Have animal welfare and ethical issues for vegan and vegetarians | Accepted by vegetarians and vegans who avoid meat eating due to animal welfare and ethical concerns, culture media are free from animal origin ingredients |