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Mechanical characterization supposes a key step in the development of cultured meat to help mimicking the sensorial properties of already existing commercial products based on traditional meat. This work presents two well stablished methods that can help studying cultured meat mechanical characteristics: texture profile analysis (double compression test) and rheology. These techniques provide data about the elastic and viscous behaviour of the samples but also values about other texture characteristics such as springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness and resilience. In this work, we present a comparison of cultured meat-based samples with commercial of the shelf common meat products (sausage, turkey and chicken breast). Results show that both Young’s and Shear modulus in the cultured meat samples can be compared to commercial products in order to understand its properties. The texture characteristics for the cultured meat studied, show values within the range of commercial products. These results demonstrate the applicability of this methodology for the adjustment of mechanical properties of cultured meat products.

Over the last few years, there has been growing interest in measuring the contractile force (CF) of engineered muscle tissues to evaluate their functionality. However, there are still no standards available for selecting the most suitable experimental platform, measuring system, culture protocol, or stimulation patterns. Consequently, the high variability of published data hinders any comparison between different studies. We have identified that cantilever deflection, post deflection, and force transducers are the most commonly used configurations for CF assessment in 2D and 3D models. Additionally, we have discussed the most relevant emerging technologies that would greatly complement CF evaluation with intracellular and localized analysis. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of the most significant advances in CF evaluation and its critical parameters. In order to compare contractile performance across experimental platforms, we have used the specific force (sF, kN/m2), CF normalized to the calculated cross-sectional area (CSA). However, this parameter presents a high variability throughout the different studies, which indicates the need to identify additional parameters and complementary analysis suitable for proper comparison. We propose that future contractility studies in skeletal muscle constructs report detailed information about construct size, contractile area, maturity level, sarcomere length, and, ideally, the tetanus-to-twitch ratio. These studies will hopefully shed light on the relative impact of these variables on muscle force performance of engineered muscle constructs. Prospective advances in muscle tissue engineering, particularly in muscle disease models, will require a joint effort to develop standardized methodologies for assessing CF of engineered muscle tissues.

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