You might be chowing down on a 3D-printed Wagyu steak in the very near future, with Japanese scientists creating Wagyu steak with marbling "just like the real thing".
A team out of the Osaka University replicated some of the best-tasting beef on the planet -- Wagyu -- which even has fat, muscle, and blood vessels in an intricate structure producing a marble effect. Wagyu beef is known worldwide as one of the most famous (and delicious) for its high content of "intramuscular fat" and marbling, recreated with 3D printing.
The marbling side of things is what gives Wagyu beef its delicious, deep flavors and specific texture -- so 3D printing Wagyu beef is a true feat. The researchers used two types of stem stells: bovine satellite cells and adipose-derived stem cells, insulated from Wagyu cows. They then incubated and coaxed the cells into becoming the various cell types required for the individual fibers for muscle, fat, and blood vessels -- they were piled on top of each other into a 3D stack that re-creates the marbling of the delicious Wagyu beef.
This is where things get a little more interesting: the researchers used a technique that is used to make Japanese Kintaro candy -- which is an old traditional sweet in the form of a long pipe and then cut it into slices. The slices themselves were cut perpendicularly to make lab-grown beef slices, which let the researchers customize the structure of the meat -- something you can't do with a cow.
Senior author Michiya Matsusaki explains: "By improving this technology, it will be possible to not only reproduce complex meat structures, such as the beautiful sashi of Wagyu beef, but to also make subtle adjustments to the fat and muscle components".
