Understanding biomanufacturing of soy-based scaffolds for cell-cultured meat by vat polymerization

Emerging cell-cultured meat uses advances in stem cell biology and tissue engineering to manufacture animal-derived food from culturing. To achieve complex textures in cell-cultured meat, bioprinted soy-based polymers are proposed as a photosensitive edible scaffold material. Understanding the properties of these scaffolds across critical product development stages (i.e., cooking and consumption) is important in design for manufacturing. The results demonstrated that the thermomechanical and -chemical properties were not affected by high-temperature exposure associated with cooking. This research provides a foundation for high-temperature edible mechanics in photolithographic manufacturing of cell-cultured meat and establishes a new design space for tunable food properties.