Preparation of disk carrier composed of bacterial cellulose and mushroom chitosan for cultured chicken meat production

Cultured meat, produced through in vitro cell proliferation and maturation on scaffolds, has garnered attention as a sustainable alternative to conventional livestock farming. While disk carriers have shown potential for high-density cultures in bioreactor processes, key challenges persist, including the reliance on animal-derived materials and the limited edibility and affordability of current scaffolds. To advance the scalability and consumer acceptability of cultured meat, edible, cost-effective, and biocompatible scaffolding materials are essential. Here, we introduce a bacterial cellulose-mushroom chitosan (BCMC) disk carrier, prepared via a simple, scalable blend-casting method, as a promising scaffold for cultured meat production. The addition of MC endows BC with a positively charged surface exhibiting moderate wettability. In testing with murine myoblasts (C2C12), chicken skeletal muscle cells (cSMC), and chicken embryo fibroblasts (DF-1), BCMC carriers effectively supported cell proliferation, promoted myotube formation and skeletal muscle marker expression in C2C12s and cSMCs after 7 days of serum starvation, and facilitated lipid droplet formation in DF-1s after 10 days of lipogenesis induction. Furthermore, centimeter-scale cultured meat was achieved by laminated construction, resulting in muscle and fat analogues with hardness properties comparable to those of real chicken meat. This method allows for flexible control over tissue architecture and composition of cultured meat by sequentially depositing cell-laden BCMC disks. These findings suggest that BCMC disk carriers offer a promising solution for overcoming current limitations in cultured meat production. Their simplicity, low cost, and edibility make them a viable option for large-scale applications, advancing the development of sustainable and texturally realistic cultured meat products.