The procedure of extracting the stem cells necessary to start the process of cultivating meat is said to be painless7 or happens under anaesthesia8. For cultivated beef, one possible scenario could be that up to four biopsies are taken from each carefully selected donor animal in a single session every three months9. After the process, the animals “are free to roam the fields”10, as Mosa Meat puts it, but, of course, FOUR PAWS cannot know whether all companies share the same vision. Some companies even developed procedures to 'immortalise' cells, which means they could indefinitely continue to divide.11 The biggest welfare concern in regard to cultivated meat is the use of Foetal Calf Serum (FCS), also referred to as Foetal Bovine Serum (FBS), which is fed to cells as they undergo differentiation, where they turn from stem cells into specific cells such as fat or muscle.12 FBS is made from the blood of foetuses cut out of pregnant cows directly after slaughtering. The blood is drawn by sticking a needle into the living calf's heart without any form of anaesthesia until the calf is bloodless and dead.13 Studies carried out in Europe showed that 10-15% of cows are pregnant when slaughtered.14 Annually, more than two million bovine foetuses are killed worldwide for the production of FBS.15 After lengthy research, plant-based and synthetic Animal Component-Free (ACF)16 growth media have recently been made available.17,18,19 This breakthrough does not only avoid animal suffering but also makes cultivated meat more cost-effective and thus scalable. FOUR PAWS considers cultivated meat as an alternative to conventional meat only if the use of FBS or other cruelly derived animal components is categorically ruled out.