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Animal Alternative Technologies Uses 3D Printing for Ethical Meat Production

Along with dairy production, the meat industry is now known to account for 83% of agricultural land use and produces 18 per cent of greenhouse gases, including methane and nitrous oxide. What’s more, a study from the University of Oxford…

Animal Alternative Technologies Uses 3D Printing for Ethical Meat Production
3Dnatives

Along with dairy production, the meat industry is now known to account for 83% of agricultural land use and produces 18 per cent of greenhouse gases, including methane and nitrous oxide. What’s more, a study from the University of Oxford found that eating a vegan diet could cut an individual’s carbon footprint by up to 74%, making it the single best way to help the planet. It might like a no-brainer, right? Despite these statistics, meat features heavily in cuisines from all around the world and many of us could not imagine life without it. Thankfully, substitutes have become increasingly popular in recent years, particularly those which emulate meat in taste and texture. Something less well-known is lab-grown meat: today, we will introduce you to Clarisse Beurrier of Animal Alternative Technologies, a firm based in Cambridge, UK, which uses 3D printing to create cultured meat. To find out more about her motivations and thoughts on the meat industry as it stands, just read on.

3DN: Could you introduce yourself and explain your link to 3D printing?

My name is Clarisse Beurrier and I am the co-founder and CEO of Animal Alternative Technologies. We are an engineering B2B startup based in the University of Cambridge focused on scaling up cultured meat for food sustainability and security. 3D Printing has a big role to play in this innovative sector of Cellular Agriculture (this term means making agricultural products by growing cells instead of raising and slaughtering animals). At Animal Alternative Technologies, we already use 3D printing for many applications because it offers great flexibility, especially for rapid prototyping and the creation of custom parts.

Clarisse Beurrier, the CEO of AAT

My hope is to make cultured meat production accessible to all, whilst leaving no one behind in this race to reinvent meat. We are creating scalable industrial processes for the major types of mammalian meats first processed types of meats and then structured like steaks, focusing on cost reduction.