Food Safety
Keeping cultured meat safe from harmful bacteria
Samuel Peabody
Texas Tech University, United States
food safety
Overview
Who: Samuel Peabody IV, Ph.D. student in food science
When: 2019 – Present
Institutes: Texas Tech University, United States
Supervisors: Marcos X. Sanchez-Plata, associate professor of global food security at Texas Tech University; Bradley Johnson, chair of meat science and muscle biology at Texas Tech University; Jerrad Legako, assistant professor of meat science at Texas Tech University
Summary
Sam’s project is the first at New Harvest to study food safety. For his Ph.D., he wants to know how certain pathogenic bacteria (e.g. Listeria, Salmonella, S. aureus) may grow in a future cultured meat facility. At the end of his work, he’ll be able to recommend ways companies can both monitor—and mitigate—bacterial growth in their cultured meat production.
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- Selfie in the lab, taken while Sam cultivates Salmonella strains on XLD agar. Hypothetically, the risk of contamination in cell-based meats is low. Modeling the fate of potential pathogens under various conditions will tell us how they can be avoided and controlled.
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- Agar art by Sam 🎨 Salmonella enterica serotype infantis on XLD agar.
Why This Matters
Sam’s research is helping to bring cultured meat to market by anticipating the demands of regulatory compliance. His work will help identify potential hazards in the production process and provide companies guidance on how to mitigate risk.
To find out more about this project, listen to our podcast where we talk to Samuel about how to keep cultured meat safe from food-borne pathogens.
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