44 Cell-cultured coffee

Cell-cultured coffee

Following meat and seafood, coffee could be the next item grown in a lab.

In September 2021, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland said it had produced a brew that smelled and tasted like regular coffee—all without growing a single coffee plant. The coffee was lab-grown from cell cultures in a bioreactor, with steel vessels filled with a nutrient-rich broth.

“The experience of drinking the very first cup was exciting,” VTT research team leader Dr Heiko Rischer says. “I estimate we are only four years away from ramping up production and having regulatory approval in place.”

The impetus for an alternative way to make coffee is similar to that for meat and seafood: growing world demand that’s taxing the earth’s productive resources. The global coffee market was worth over $102 billion in 2020, according to Mordor Intelligence. The market—from whole bean and ground and instant coffee to pods and capsules—is marked by fierce competition and innovation.

Rising coffee production and consumption worldwide have sparked concerns about deforestation as well as river pollution from processing run-offs. Traditionally coffee plants were grown under the shade of trees but, as demand skyrocketed, coffee farmers began cutting down trees to create rows of higheryield coffee. Scientists warn that in the future climate change could also lead to shrinking areas for coffee cultivation, particularly for high-end varieties in countries like Ethiopia. Hence the search for an alternative cup of java.

Rischer says that more research on processing and formulation lies ahead, as well as regulatory approval. “That said,” he adds, “we have now proved that lab-grown coffee can be a reality.”

Why it’s interesting Scientists already know they can grow animal and plant biomass in labs. But the process tends to be laborious and expensive, and still tends to evoke a “Frankenfood” vibe among consumers. The first lab-grown meat—chicken nuggets made by Silicon Valley company Eat Just—was approved for sale at the end of 2020 in Singapore and hasn’t really taken off anywhere else since. Coffee won’t have that baggage. The big test will be whether the brands that commercialize lab-grown coffee can eventually meet a price point consumers can swallow—on a daily basis.