The burger will probably have the slippery texture of squid or scallops. But scientists are very excited over the prospect of the world’s first test-tube burger, which could be less than a year away. By the way these test will cost $315,868 to produce the fake burger. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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Sausages and other processed meat products could swiftly follow, although pork chops and sirloin steaks will be much more problematic.
Produced in huge vats from muscle cells, the ‘meat without slaughter’ would be kinder to the environment than the real thing, reduce animal suffering and help feed the world’s burgeoning population.
Despite its huge initial cost, industrial-scale production could see the price plummet to equal, or less than that of real meat.
It remains to be seen, however, whether it will find favour with a public that likes to think of its chops, steaks and sausages as having their roots in nature, rather than in test-tubes.
Others might find the synthetic meat’s texture and pallid colour unappetising.
The Daily Mail told in June how government-funded Dutch scientists had found a way of turning muscle cells extracted from pigs into ‘rashers’ of pork.
More detail emerged in this week’s New Scientist magazine.
Incubated in a protein ‘broth’, the microscopic cells multiply many times over, creating a sticky tissue with the consistency of an undercooked egg.
