Decoding cultured meat manufacturing: a full process model to identify scale-up bottlenecks.

Introduction: Despite growing interest in cultured meat, scaling its production from laboratory systems remains challenging. Its industrial translation is constrained by a lack of process-level models and validated engineering data. Methods: In this study, we developed a process model for animal cell biomass production in suspension batch culture using SuperPro Designer v12. The model describes suspension-based cell proliferation to produce unstructured biomass without microcarriers and excludes cell differentiation, tissue maturation, or structured tissue formation. It integrates media preparation, sequential cell expansion up to a 20,000 L stirred-tank reactor, downstream clarification and washing, extrusion, and supporting utilities into a single flowsheet. Unit operations were parameterized using literature-derived assumptions from mammalian suspension culture, enabling complete mass and energy balances throughout the system. Results: The baseline model assumes a maximum cell density of 5 × 10 Discussion: The model is not intended as a final process design but as a reference framework: it makes assumptions explicit, provides reproducible balances, and supports comparative scenario analysis. This framework enables systematic evaluation of scalable cultivated biomass production concepts, highlights technical potential and infrastructure requirements, and helps prevent misdirected investments by allowing process configurations to be assessed before industrial implementation.