news conference in London. Scientists from
Maastricht University in the Netherlands, led
by professor Mark Post, had taken stem cells
from a cow and grown them into strips of
muscle which they then combined to make
a burger. The burger was cooked by chef
Richard McGeown of Couch’s Great House
Restaurant, Polperro, Cornwall, and tasted by
critics Hanni Ruetzler, a food researcher from
the Future Food Studio and Josh Schonwald.
Ruetzler stated, ‘’There is really a bite to it,
there is quite some flavour with the browning.
I know there is no fat in it, so I didn’t really
know how juicy it would be, but there is quite
some intense taste; it’s close to meat, it’s not
that juicy, but the consistency is perfect. This
is meat to me... It’s really something to bite on
and I think the look is quite similar.’’
Ruetzler added that even in a blind trial she
would have taken the product for meat rather
than a soya copy.
Tissue for the London demonstration was
cultivated in May 2013, using about 20,000
thin strips of cultured muscle tissue. Funding
of around €250,000 came from an anonymous
donor.
Post remarked that “there’s no reason why
it can’t be cheaper...If we can reduce the
global herd a millionfold, then I’m happy”.
Still Post estimates it will probably take at
least a decade before the process becomes
commercially viable.
First cultured hamburger unbaked. By
World Economic Forum - File: The Meat Revolu-
tion Mark Post.webm (7:48), CC BY 3.0, https://
commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?cu-
rid=65595200
AgriKultuur |AgriCulture
Production
The process of developing in vitro meat
involves taking muscle cells and applying a
protein that promotes tissue growth. Once
this process has been started, it would be
theoretically possible to continue producing
meat indefinitely without introducing new cells
from a living organism. It has been claimed
that, conditions being ideal,