How are synthetic foods made? A look at cellular agriculture and precision fermentation

October 24, 2025 •

4 min read

According to the Good Food Institute, the alternative protein sector has raised billions of dollars in funding, signaling a major shift toward novel food production methods. These innovations lead many to ask: how are synthetic foods made, and what does the process involve?

Quick Summary

Synthetic foods are produced using advanced biotechnologies like cellular agriculture and precision fermentation, which replicate traditional foods like meat and dairy in controlled, laboratory-based environments. These methods rely on culturing cells or engineering microbes to create food components.

Key Points

Cellular Agriculture: Produces lab-grown meat and fish by cultivating animal cells in a nutrient-rich medium within bioreactors.
Precision Fermentation: Creates specific animal-identical proteins, like whey or casein, using genetically engineered microorganisms such as yeast.
Sustainability: Both cellular agriculture and precision fermentation offer more environmentally friendly alternatives by reducing the carbon footprint of traditional animal farming.
Starting Ingredients: Cellular agriculture begins with a small biopsy of animal stem cells, while precision fermentation uses microorganisms altered with specific gene sequences.
Bioreactors and Fermenters: These controlled, sterile environments are crucial for both methods, providing the optimal conditions for cells or microbes to multiply and produce food components.
Food Functionality: Unlike plant-based alternatives, synthetic foods can be chemically identical to their animal-based counterparts, potentially offering similar taste, texture, and nutritional value.
Commercial Scaling: A significant challenge is scaling these lab-based processes to an industrial level to meet widespread consumer demand affordably.

The Core Technologies Behind Synthetic Food Production

Synthetic food production is a sophisticated intersection of biotechnology, food science, and engineering. Instead of traditional agriculture, these methods use controlled, sterile environments to cultivate food components directly. There are two primary categories of technology driving this revolution: cellular agriculture and acellular agriculture, which often employs precision fermentation. While both can create food that is chemically identical to its natural counterpart, their methods differ significantly.

Cellular Agriculture: Building Food from Cells

Cellular agriculture involves growing animal products, such as meat, fish, and milk, directly from a culture of animal cells. This process is known as 'cultivated meat' and avoids the need for raising and slaughtering livestock.

Here is a step-by-step breakdown of the process:

Cell Biopsy: The process starts with a small, harmless biopsy of animal cells, often stem cells, which have the ability to differentiate into various cell types.
Cell Banking: These collected cells are then banked for future use, creating a reliable and consistent starting point for production.
Cultivation in Bioreactors: The cells are placed in large vessels called bioreactors (also known as cultivators), which mimic the conditions inside an animal's body. A growth medium is introduced, which is a nutrient-rich liquid containing amino acids, sugars, vitamins, and salts.
Growth and Differentiation: The cells multiply rapidly within the bioreactor. The medium is adjusted to encourage the stem cells to differentiate into specialized muscle, fat, and connective tissue cells—the building blocks of meat.
Scaffolding: For structured cuts of meat, like steak, a scaffold is used to help the cells organize and grow into the desired shape and texture. Scaffolding provides the necessary structure for cells to form tissue, mimicking the natural architecture of meat.
Harvesting and Processing: Once the tissue is fully formed, it is harvested, prepared, and processed into the final food product, such as ground beef or chicken fillets.

Acellular Agriculture and Precision Fermentation

This method, also known as precision fermentation, produces specific animal-based ingredients, such as proteins, fats, and enzymes, rather than whole cell-based tissue. It works by using microorganisms, like yeast or bacteria, as 'cell factories.'

Here is the process:

Genetic Engineering: Scientists identify the specific DNA sequence that codes for a desired protein, such as whey or casein (the proteins in milk), or ovalbumin (the protein in eggs). This gene sequence is then inserted into the DNA of the host microorganism.
Microbial Fermentation: The genetically modified microbes are grown in large fermentation tanks, similar to those used in brewing beer. The microbes consume a sugar-based feedstock and begin producing the targeted protein as part of their metabolic process.
Extraction and Purification: After fermentation, the desired protein is extracted from the microbes and purified to remove any remaining cellular material. This results in a pure, animal-free protein isolate.
Formulation: The final protein is then used as an ingredient in various food products. For example, whey and casein proteins are combined with plant-based fats, sugars, and vitamins to create animal-free milk, cheese, and ice cream.

The Role of 3D Printing

While not a standalone production method, 3D printing can be used to texturize and shape synthetic food components, particularly those made via cellular or acellular agriculture. This technology can create complex structures, adding layers of fat and muscle fibers to enhance the final product's texture and appearance.

Comparison of Synthetic Food Production Methods


Feature	Cellular Agriculture	Precision Fermentation (Acellular)
Final Product	Whole muscle, fat, or tissue, replicating traditional meat and seafood	Specific ingredients like proteins and fats, used to formulate finished products
Starting Material	Animal stem cells harvested from a live animal	Microorganisms like yeast or bacteria, genetically engineered to produce a specific compound
Production Process	Cultivating cells in a bioreactor with a nutrient-rich medium until they form tissue	Fermenting engineered microbes in tanks to produce a desired molecule
Key Outcome	Biologically identical animal products without raising and slaughtering animals	Chemically identical animal proteins without the use of any animals
Best For	Cultivated meat, chicken, seafood	Animal-free dairy, egg whites, and other ingredient-dependent products

Benefits and Challenges of Synthetic Foods

The development of synthetic foods offers several potential advantages over traditional animal agriculture. It can significantly reduce the environmental footprint associated with farming, such as greenhouse gas emissions and land use. Additionally, it addresses animal welfare concerns and can potentially lead to more consistent, safer food products by reducing the risk of contamination from pathogens.

However, challenges remain. The scaling of production to a commercially viable level is a major hurdle. The cost of growth media and bioreactors needs to decrease to make synthetic foods competitive with conventional products. Consumer acceptance is also a key factor, as many people are still unfamiliar with or skeptical of lab-grown food.

Conclusion: The Future of Food is Evolving

The question of how are synthetic foods made reveals a fascinating world of scientific innovation. With methods like cellular agriculture and precision fermentation, scientists and companies are fundamentally changing how we produce food. These biotechnological approaches hold the potential to create a more sustainable, ethical, and secure global food system. As these technologies mature, they will likely play an increasingly important role in our food landscape, offering diverse and sustainable alternatives to traditional animal-based products. The trajectory of synthetic food production, from niche research to viable market options, shows that the future of our food is not only about what we eat but also about how it is created.

For a deeper dive into the technical processes of cellular agriculture, you can explore resources from organizations like The Good Food Institute.(https://gfi.org/science/the-science-of-cultivated-meat/)

Frequently Asked Questions

Plant-based alternatives are made from plants, using ingredients like soy, peas, or potatoes to create meat and dairy substitutes. Synthetic food, however, is created using biotechnological methods like cell cultivation or fermentation to produce proteins that are chemically identical to those found in animals, rather than just imitating them.

Regulatory bodies, such as the FDA in the U.S., oversee the safety of synthetic foods. Both cellular- and fermentation-based products are rigorously tested. Many ingredients produced via precision fermentation have been approved as safe for consumption, and cultivated meat is undergoing regulatory review to ensure its safety.

The taste and texture are replicated by ensuring the final products contain the same molecular compounds found in traditional food. In cellular agriculture, growing the correct ratio of muscle and fat cells is key. In precision fermentation, the resulting proteins, such as whey and casein, are combined with plant-based fats and sugars to mimic the flavor profile of dairy.

One of the major benefits is sustainability. Synthetic food production can dramatically reduce environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water consumption, compared to traditional livestock farming. It also offers a potential solution to food security challenges.

Yes, precision fermentation relies on genetically engineered microorganisms, like yeast or bacteria, to produce specific proteins. These microbes are grown in a closed system, and the final protein product is purified, so the GMOs themselves are not present in the finished food.

Examples include animal-free dairy products made using precision fermentation, such as certain brands of cream cheese and ice cream. Cultivated meat products are also emerging, with some already available in select markets like Singapore.

The production time varies depending on the method. Cultivated meat, for example, can take two to eight weeks to grow, depending on the type of tissue. Precision fermentation can be a faster process, often taking less time to produce specific proteins.