VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has made strides in developing plant-based food using plant cell culture (PCC) rather than cultivating it from traditional farming methods.
Feeding the world’s growing population is a common agricultural concern due to a limited amount of arable farmland globally. New methods of producing food, like PCC, have promise since they do not require as much land to create food.
VTT’s study looked at the nutrition and sensory properties of cloudberry, lignonberry, and stoneberry cells grown in a lab setting. The cells had similar sensory properties to the fresh fruits, but had unexpectedly improved nutrition content. The samples had high protein and fiber content, specifically.
Exploration of new ways to produce food, like PCC, are promising and may provide new ways to for the food industry to improve nutrition of foods and beverages in a way that resonates with sustainability-conscious consumers.
