Scientists Grow Meat in Lab

By John Farrier in Food & Drink, Science & Tech on Nov 30, 2009 at 3:12 pm

Researchers at Eindhoven University in the Netherlands have recently grown synthetic pork meat in a laboratory setting. Lois Rogers writes for The Times:

The advent of so-called “in-vitro” or cultured meat could reduce the billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted each year by farm animals — if people are willing to eat it.

So far the scientists have not tasted it, but they believe the breakthrough could lead to sausages and other processed products being made from laboratory meat in as little as five years’ time.

They initially extracted cells from the muscle of a live pig. Called myoblasts, these cells are programmed to grow into muscle and repair damage in animals.

The cells were then incubated in a solution containing nutrients to encourage them to multiply indefinitely. This nutritious “broth” is derived from the blood products of animal foetuses, although the intention is to come up with a synthetic solution.

Link via Popular Science | Image: US Department of the Interior


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  1. LisaL
    Nov 30th, 2009 at 3:21 pm

    I would have no problem eating it so long as it tasted the same.

  2. LisaL
    Nov 30th, 2009 at 3:22 pm

    Oh and this reminds me of the short lived show on ABC… can’t remember what it was called, but the scientists on it created lab meat that they gave to someone to eat.

  3. Gauldar
    Nov 30th, 2009 at 3:28 pm

    @LisaL

    Was that the whole premise of the show? Yeah, sounds like a real winner.

  4. evilmonkeynz
    Nov 30th, 2009 at 3:32 pm

    Better off Ted – I just saw that the other day! weird

  5. L.
    Nov 30th, 2009 at 4:29 pm

    Better Off Ted (not canceled BTW)!!! They even “exercised” the meat to make it taste better on the show!!!

  6. guyek
    Nov 30th, 2009 at 5:30 pm

    I’ve been a vegetarian for 18 years. If they came up with a truly cruelty free way to produce meat, I would be the first one in line at Sizzlers(that’s where people eat meat, right?).

  7. LisaL
    Nov 30th, 2009 at 5:31 pm

    Ah that’s it… oh that’s great to hear that it’s not cancelled! :D
    Def check it out if ya haven’t. It’s a goofy, quirky weird show heh

  8. pwscott
    Nov 30th, 2009 at 8:31 pm

    Let’s review. Spam, tripe,Vienna sausage, hot dogs and now meat that never came close to a bone. Oh well, why not. (I bet the UK will love it.) :p

  9. JamesM
    Nov 30th, 2009 at 8:43 pm

    As someone who sparingly takes in animal products, but hates what soy does to him… I’d love this. Vat grown chicken? Bring it on. Soy can only do so much and it turns out that the more soy is processed, the unhealthier it becomes for one to consume it. It also tends to give me raging heartburn.

  10. dooflotchie
    Nov 30th, 2009 at 9:34 pm

    I hear ya on the soy thing! Except it doesn’t give me raging heartburn (Prilosec FTW!) I get to enjoy some pretty hardcore stomach cramps instead. Any kind of legumes do that to me, plus a lot of dairy products too. Going meat-free was never an option.

    I’d be willing to try the vat meat anytime.

  11. james b
    Dec 1st, 2009 at 1:01 am

    i already eat imitation bacon bits

  12. Christophe
    Dec 1st, 2009 at 3:17 pm

    Solient pink!

  13. ArtW
    Dec 2nd, 2009 at 1:09 pm

    See ‘The Space Merchants’ by CM Kornbluth in about 1950. Once again, life follows fiction!

  14. blakmira
    Dec 3rd, 2009 at 11:20 pm

    This is really exciting news. Imagine closing down all the slaughterhouses! The manufacturing of “Meat” would no longer entail billions of animals being tortured and slaughtered.

    Personally, as a vegan, I find anything too closely resembling meat to be repulsive. Even some of the processed “mock meats” taste too close to the real thing for me.

    This is for all the people who stubbornly won’t give up meat for any reason — here it is, with 99% of the cruelty gone!


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