Food for thought as 'pork' grown in the lab
Monday November 30 2009
THE move towards artificially engineered food has taken a step forward after scientists grew a form of meat in a laboratory for the first time.
Researchers in Holland have created what was described as soggy pork and are investigating ways to improve the muscle tissue in the hope that people will one day want to eat it.
The scientists have not tasted the product, but it is believed the artificial meat could be on sale within five years.
Mark Post, professor of physiology at Eindhoven University, said: "What we have at the moment is rather like wasted muscle tissue. We need to find ways of improving it by training it and stretching it, but we will get there.
"This product will be good for the environment and will reduce animal suffering. If it feels and tastes like meat, people will buy it."
The scientists extracted cells from the muscle of a live pig and put them in a broth derived from the blood of animal foetuses. The cells then multiplied and created muscle tissue. The project, backed by the Dutch government and a sausage maker, follows the creation of fish fillets from goldfish muscle cells.
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A spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), the animal rights group, said: "As far as we're concerned, if meat is no longer a piece of a dead animal there's no ethical objection."
However, the Vegetarian Society said: "How could you guarantee you were eating artificial flesh rather than flesh from an animal that had been slaughtered?"
The advent of meat grown in a laboratory could reduce the billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases emitted each year by farm animals and help meet the growth in meat consumption, which the United Nations predicts will double by 2050.
The latest breakthrough is certain to cause concern among opponents of genetically modified (GM) foods.
Prince Charles, a fierce opponent of GM food, said last week that people were creating problems by "treating food as an easy commodity rather than a precious gift from nature".
His comments came as the results of a survey showed that UK shoppers wanted to be told whether meat or milk from cows was genetically modified -- through clear labelling. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
- Nick Britten in London
Irish Independent
