Future food

Costing $330,000 to put on the plate, it’s not exactly the cheapest burger ever made. Nor is it the tastiest, according to the food critics invited to try it at a news conference in London last week. But nonetheless, the burger made by Professor Mark Post and his team is special. As it was fried and eaten in front of a crowd of journalists, scientific history was made: for the first time, a person had tasted lab-grown meat.

The project began with the removal of a small number of stem cells from two adult cows. A stem cell has the ability to copy itself over and over again, and can develop into other types of cell. Once extracted these were placed into individual containers and encouraged to replicate in the laboratory, producing thousands of tiny strands of muscle tissue. The fibres were then combined – along with some beetroot juice to give it a more appetisingly ‘meaty’ colour, and some saffron and caramel for flavour – and the burger was complete.

Genetically, the lab-grown meat is identical to beef taken from an actual cow, though the lack of fat meant it reportedly lacked the juiciness and flavour associated with a conventional burger. However, the taste testers complimented the patty’s texture, stating that while it wasn’t quite indistinguishable from the real thing, it was pretty close for a first attempt. Professor Post hopes that in the future they will be able to improve the flavour and appearance, and eventually engineer more complicated cuts of meat – even growing whole steaks!

Some believe this process is an important step towards reducing the environmental impact of eating meat, since it uses only a fraction of the resources and energy of cattle farming, and produces far less greenhouse gases. Others see it as a potential solution to worldwide food shortages – shortages likely to increase as the global population grows. Not everyone agrees on this point, however, with critics suggesting that there is already more than enough food to go around, so long as we improve distribution and become less wasteful. Furthermore, if we really want to help the environment, reducing the amount of meat we eat or giving it up altogether is an even more sustainable option. Nonetheless, with demand for cheap meat rising, experts predict that it won’t be long before lab-grown beef has made its way out of the test tube and onto the dinner table.