Fabrication of edible bacterial cellulose scaffold for porcine smooth muscle cells to produce custom-textured cultured meat.

Cell-cultured meat (CCM) technology is an emerging meat production method that alleviates the negative impacts caused by traditional livestock farming. Cell scaffolds can enhance the three-dimensional (3D) structure and edible quality of CCM, yet current options remain costly, mechanically weak, and poorly replicate the texture of traditional meat. Therefore, this study aims to develop a porous scaffold suitable for porcine smooth muscle cells (pSMCs) using bacterial cellulose (BC) and further evaluate the quality of the final CCM. Results showed that pSMCs proliferated well on two-dimensional (2D) BC membranes while maintaining good viability. In 3D scaffolds, higher BC content resulted in larger pores, yet all scaffolds with different BC contents supported cell growth. Furthermore, scaffolds composed of BC and sodium alginate (SA) in a 6:4 ratio (B6S4) exhibited the best stability among the four tested formulations, providing the highest hardness (141.34 ± 12.50 g) and chewiness (128.24 ± 12.34 g). Correspondingly, pSMCs showed enhanced activity in B6S4 scaffolds, with increased production of total protein (2.38 ± 0.26 mg) and collagen (63.05 ± 13.72 μg) following induction. The overall results indicate that controlling the amount of BC in the scaffold can regulate the texture of CCM. Therefore, this study aims to provide theoretical guidance for developing low-cost, structurally controllable edible cell scaffolds and further promote the industrial production of CCM.