The laws of nature were defied this month as the world’s first lab-grown beef patty was taste-tested in London.
The laws of nature were defied this month as the world’s first lab-grown beef patty was taste-tested in London.
The patty doesn’t require killing any actual livestock to be produced, but instead uses stem-cells harvested from the animal.
Stem-cells are building blocks used in early foetal development, with the ability to morph into any kind of tissue such as bone, muscle or skin. Now these cells have been manipulated with growth hormones and can, through complicated processes, be transformed into muscle fibres.
These were then compacted into the familiar shape of a patty. The texture of the inaugural burger patty was reported to be very similar to that of conventional meat, but the lack of natural fat deposits meant it wasn’t as “juicy”.
Researchers, however, claim that alterations can easily be made to please the average burger eater. These growth methods can also be applied to fish, chicken and other popular consumed meats.
Ultimately, the “in vitro beef” is inherently different from natural meat because of the absence of blood vessels, bone and an actual animal. These factors limit the development of lab-grown products like lamb shank.
The product will only be competitive if it looks, tastes and feels like the real deal. But once it does, it will open up a whole range of health, economic and environmental benefits, such as limiting infections that spread through livestock and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cattle farming.
Additionally, it requires far less space to produce. Animal rights activists have supported the development of this technology, since it reduces harm to living creatures. About three million cattle are slaughtered every year in South Africa to produce the 800 000kg of meat we consume annually.
Lab-grown beef that is grown cost-efficiently mass produced may be a blessing for the whole of Africa, which regularly faces kwashiorkor epidemics caused by protein-deficient diets.
