West London – Monday, scientists from the Netherlands unveiled a beef burger created using cow stem cells in a research laboratory, at a taste-test in Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios.
The event was streamed live as Dr. Mark Post from Maastricht University presented the Franken-Burger that was cooked and eaten by Hanni Rutzler, an Austrian researcher, and Josh Schonwald, a food writer from Chicago. It took 20,000 protein strands grown from Cow stem cells, five years of research and development, and an investment of a quarter of a million pounds to get the “cultured beef burger” ready from human consumption, but first impressions have been mixed at best.
One taste-tester said the burger was “tougher in texture than expected” and needed salt and pepper (and ketchup), whilst another said it was similar to beef, but “not quite there yet”.
The project has been partly funded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and could potentially revolutionise the way we produce and consume meat, with the project’s leader Dr. Post saying that the stem cells from one cow could eventually create a million times more beef than a single slaughtered cow could, although he concedes it will take 10-20 years before the environmentally sound and animal-friendly meat alternative could be commercially viable due to high costs and production volume issues.
There will also have to be a significant shift in general public attitudes towards artificially created meat for it to really take off, but with the world’s population hurtling towards the 10 billion mark and the increasing cost to the environment of current meat farming and production – experts warn that something significant has to be done to avoid the impending food crisis.
