COP28 and Lab-Grown Meat. Halal?

The COP28, a global symposium on climate change, is being held in Qatar this month. Friday, December 8, starts the seminar about livestock production and its effect on the environment. 

The Islamic Post spoke with Eleanor Luther, a consultant with the Global Meat Alliance, about COP28 aims: “It seems unlikely the negotiations will result in clear rules or standards for reducing agricultural emissions this time. Instead they’re likely to focus on climate change adaptation and resilience.” 

In the livestock industry, part of the plan to adapt the industry to be more favorable to reducing global warming is with the production of lab-grown, or cultivated, meat. 

Muslims are meat-eaters on the whole, it being a part of the practice of the Holy Last Messenger Muhammad, peace be upon him, to consume meat. This leaves a huge market for cultivated meat open for producers, assuming the meat is halal.

Steps Towards ‘Clean’ Meat

Part of the actions the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO, a participant at the upcoming seminar, considers appropriate to help achieve a reduction in livestock emissions includes “striving for healthy, sustainable diets and accounting for protein alternatives.”

Cultivated meats are made in laboratories without slaughter and without methane-contribution to the environment. While the technology isn’t new, developments to cultured meats have accelerated in the past few years. They are the new alternatives being brought to market for Muslim and non-Muslim consumption.  

This new protein form has its expense challenges. Some of these are centered around the use of cheaper plant-based serums to feed the cultures as opposed to more expensive bovine options.

Is Lab-Grown Meat Halal?

There are other challenges, notes the FAO: “Cellular agriculture (where animal proteins and whole cells are generated in bioreactors) is being further developed. The phenomenon is not new – human insulin has been produced in yeast cells since the 1970s – and relatively simple milk (i.e. casein and whey) and egg (i.e. ovalbumin) proteins can already be produced, but the construction of cell complexes for in vitro meat is more challenging, and relies on culturing stem cells.”

The GFI says, “The most common method to acquire starter cells is by taking a cell sample from a live animal, which can be performed using minimally invasive methods.” This method is considered by some to not meet halal requirements. In Indonesia, it’s considered to fall under the category of mayyit, similar to roadkill. Indonesia also notes the unclean status of the ingredients used to feed the starter cells. 

“In some cases, these cells may also be acquired by biopsying a recently slaughtered animal where the tissue is still viable, which could be important for determining compliance to religious laws (e.g., halal, kosher),” says GFI, and other Muslim-majority countries agree that if the animal was slaughtered in an Islamic manner, that the meat cultures might also be halal. 

However, there remains the issue of the serum used to feed the cultures.

Which Meat Cells Are Used?

The Good Food Institute (GFI) notes, “To date, no uses of …[plant-based serums] for cultivated meat have been reported in the scientific literature. Using albumin and transferrin natively found in plants could allow for animal component-free media without the use of recombinant proteins.” 

GFI says it’s possible for plant-based material to feed the meat cell cultures, but it’s not known whether this kind of serum would be exclusively plant-based and whether it would actually proliferate the meat cells.  

“While some B2B manufacturers are scaling the production of proteins and growth factors using microbes, fungi, or plants as expression systems, others are looking to replace these proteins and growth factors with plant-based alternatives,” says GFI, noting that currently the proteins used in high concentrations to feed the cell cultures are recombinant albumin and transferrin, which is derived from blood.

Even if the “acquired cells originate from healthy animals alongside extensive documentation that ensure the quality and traceability of the cells,” as GFI claims, this does not address which cells are used and how they are fed so that they multiply. 

Stem cells can be acquired from almost any tissue, but fertilized ova are preferred as they enhance the multiplication of the cells and therefore produce edible protein quicker.

According to one cultivated meat company, Aleph Farms, “We use [bovine embryonic stem] cells which are isolated from an oocyte or fertilized egg before they start developing into an embryo. The benefit of using those cells is that they can replicate almost forever, relatively efficiently, with no need for immortalization or genetic engineering.” 

What Is Used to Grow the Meat Cells?

As for the serum used to feed the cells, fetal bovine serum (FBS), taken from cow fetuses, it is the industry standard. According to the GFI scientists, “In Singapore, Eat Just’s first cultivated chicken products were produced using small quantities of fetal bovine serum (FBS). However, the company received approval to sell cultivated chicken using serum-free media in early 2023.” 

“In the United States, UPSIDE Foods submitted information to the FDA showing their product can be created with or without FBS,” continues GFI. “In processes without FBS, purified bovine serum albumin was used. However, the company has stated that they intend to phase out the use of bovine serum albumin with recombinant forms of albumin protein.” The longer name for recombinant albumin protein is “recombinant form of human serum albumin produced in yeast,” or human serum albumin that has been extracted and grown in yeast.

Given the history of the food industry in the United STates, it’s not surprising that cultivated meats contain human ingredients.

Moreover, GFI notes that one way to lower production costs for cultivated meats is to create “a hybrid product where cultivated animal cells are combined with plant-based ingredients…Many companies aim to produce hybrid products, using animal fats and other cell types as ingredients.” 

Cultivated meat producers might have their eye on the halal market, but their products aren’t meeting the mark. Moreover, as the industry grows and more companies apply for patents, it will become increasingly difficult to discern what they feed the cells at all. 

While other consumers might not object, consuming meat that’s grown on fetal bovine serum, human serum albumin or transferrin and mixed with non-halal animal fats cannot be taken as halal, while it might eventually be great for the environment. 

Noora Ahmad