- Title: Grow food at home from plant cells
- Date: 7th November 2016
- Summary: ESPOO, FINLAND (OCTOBER 17, 2016) (REUTERS) SCIENTISTS WALKING IN TRADITIONAL BIO REACTOR COMPARTMENT SCIENTISTS WORKING IN LABORATORY GREEN PLANT BEING CUT UP (SOUNDBITE) (English) BIOLOGIST, LAURI REUTER, SAYING: "We are working on producing a completely new kind of food using plant cell culture. So instead of using the complete plant as food growing it on the field we're taking only a one part of it, only the cell culture and growing them in a bio reactor at home, so what it basically allows you to do is to grow your own food in your own kitchen and these cell cultures they contain pretty much the same nutritional values as the original plant would. In some cases they might be even better sources of some bioactive compounds." LABORATORY GROWN FOOD JELLY FORM CELLS REUTER ARRANGING GROWN CELL EXAMPLES LABORATORY GROWN FOOD CELLS (SOUNDBITE) (English) BIOLOGIST LAURI REUTER, SAYING: "At the moment it looks like something like this, so it's more or less like a smoothie, it's a suspension with cells in it. So you can also see the cells, so you get a spoonable thing that looks something like jam." REUTER MASHING LABORATORY GROWN PLANT CELLS WITH FINGERS RED COLOURED CELLS IN LIQUID FORM LABORATORY GROWN RED AND YELLOW COLOURED CELLS IN LIQUID FORM (SOUNDBITE) (English) BIOLOGIST LAURI REUTER SAYING: "We are not going to replace fields with this technology, obviously. There are lots of special plants that are either hard to get or cannot be produced in sustainable way so what we enable the customer to do is to grow some of that fresh plant food maybe from some exotic source like Arctic Nordic berries that are not really available in other ways." PLANT TISSUES LABORATORY GROWN CELL CULTURE IN BOTTLES SHAKEN VARIOUS OF LABORATORY GROWN CELL CULTURE LIQUID IN BOTTLES SHAKEN SCIENTISTS LOOKING AT LABORATORY GROWN CELL CULTURE STORAGE LABORATORY GROWN CELL FLUID BAGS ON WAVE REACTOR LABORATORY GROWN CELL FOOD CULTURE EXAMPLES ON SHELVES LABORATORY GROWN PLANT FOOD DEVELOPMENT STORAGE VARIOUS OF LABORATORY GROWN CELL FOOD CULTURE BOTTLES BEING SHAKEN (SOUNDBITE) (English), BIOLOGIST LAURI REUTER, SAYING: "There is this seed culture, it comes like a coffee capsule, you put it into device and give it some water and the machine does the rest. It gives light, heat and all the conditions it needs to grow into a mass of plant cells." HOME GROWN CELL FOOD DEVELOPER UNIT PROTOTYPE, CODE NAME CELLED CELL POD UNIT HOME GROWN CELL FOOD PROTOTYPE DEVICE SOUNDBITE (English) DESIGNER NIKO RATY, SAYING: "There are many difficult parts in here, like the most difficult part is the how to make the device that can produce food in sterile conditions without people really thinking about it too much." HOME GROWN CELL FOOD APPLIANCE PROTOTYPE REUTER AND RATY TALKING ABOUT THE CELL POD UNIT AND HOME CELL FOOD GROWING PROCESS TRADITIONAL LABORATORY USED PRODUCING CELL CULTURES FOR PHARMACEUTICAL AND COSMETIC INDUSTRY LARGE SCALE STEEL BIO REACTORS TRADITIONAL STEEL BIO REACTOR LABORATORY TECHNICAL RESEARCH CENTRE OF FINLAND (VTT) BUILDING
- Embargoed: 22nd November 2016 09:45
- Keywords: plant cell VTT Finland CellPod food
- Location: ESPOO, FINLAND
- City: ESPOO, FINLAND
- Country: Finland
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA00157G3K2J
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Scientists in Finland are working on a home appliance prototype called a CellPod that grows food from plant cells within a week.
The concept has been developed at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the team's first 3D-printed CellPod prototype is already producing harvests.
The idea of growing plant cells in a bioreactor is not new as such, but the VTT research enabled the development of a plant cell incubator for home use that yields a harvest within a week.
"We are working on producing a completely new kind of food using plant cell culture," explained biologist Lauri Reuter. "Instead of using the complete plant as food growing it on the field we're taking only a one part of it, only the cell culture and growing them in the bio reactor at home, so what it basically allows you to do is to grow your own food in your own kitchen and these are cell cultures they pretty much have the same nutritional values as the original plant would. In some cases they might be even better sources of some bioactive compounds."
The idea of the CellPod is based on growing the undifferentiated cells of a plant, as opposed to the whole plant. According to VTT, these cells are the best parts of a plant since they contain its "entire genetic potential."
Researchers say they are capable of producing the same healthy compounds - such as antioxidants and vitamins - as a whole plant. They state that the nutritional value of a cloudberry cell culture, for example, is superior to that of the actual berry. The taste still needs development: at the moment the researchers admit some food tastes mild and rather neutral.
So far, VTT has used cells from its own culture collection to grow Arctic bramble cells, cloudberry cells and stone bramble cells in the CellPod. The bioreactor also enables the production of food from plants other than traditional food crops, such as birch.
"We are not going to replace fields with this technology, obviously. There are lots of special plants that are either hard to get or cannot be produced in sustainable way so what we enable the customer to do is to grow some of that fresh plant food maybe from some exotic source like arctic Nordic berries that are not really available in other ways," Reuter said.
By only using seed culture, rather than cultivating an entire plant, foods created in the CellPod physically resemble oatmeal or cereal, rather than berries.
VTT's first CellPod prototype resembles a design lamp and can be kept on a kitchen table, for example.
"There is this seed culture, it comes like a coffee capsule, you put it into device and give it some water and the machine does the rest. It gives the light, heat and all the conditions it needs to grow into a mass of plant cells," Reuter said.
Researchers are consulting consumers to help improve product ideas, with the eventual aim of commercialising the concept.
"The most difficult part is how to make the device that can produce food in sterile conditions without people really thinking about it too much," said designer Niko Raty.
The prototype aims to be a way of nutritionally boosting meals, rather than supplying an entire spread.
The research has yet to be peer-reviewed, but the CellPod's creators believe they could have a product on the market within ten years. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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