A lot of good stuff – collagen, keratin, proteins – gets thrown out of slaughterhouses. It’s a waste, obviously, and it can create biohazards.

Khalifa University’s Peter Corridon, who is at the forefront of regenerative medicine technologies that repurpose slaughterhouse waste into biotechnological advancements, thinks all of those wasted bits can be put to better use enhancing food security and making healthier, cheaper, tasty foods.

He was part of the team that published a paper on this topic in Trends in Food Science & Technology.

The idea is to create cultured meat with these leftovers.

“Cell lines coming from these things can actually be used for different layers, because different tissues are formed by different cell types,” he says. “And if we can start building those things up, then we can generate the layers that are required. This is what is done in many of these bioprocessed meat-type products.”

This technology wouldn’t only create meat products from waste, though, Corridon says.

Fat is where meat gets its flavor. But what if you could flavor the meat another way and reduce the fat?

“You can flavor it and cut out some of the things that are terrible and make it a bit more healthy. You can reduce some of the fat and sprinkle in things we need to make us healthy.”

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