(EPA)
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You want fries with that?
Two brave volunteers yesterday got a taste of the world’s rarest hamburger, a lab-created, stem-cell prototype that you won’t find on any dollar menu.
Researchers in the Netherlands developed the first-ever “in vitro burger” with the hope that such meats could help feed the world and fight climate change.
Now if they could only make it taste good.
“I would say it’s close to meat,” said Austrian nutritionist Hanni Ruetzler, one of the volunteers who tasted the Frankenburger at its unveiling in London.
“I miss the salt and pepper.”
Meat lovers might miss the sizzle on the grill, since this patty has little of the fat of a Five Guys feast.
“It’s a leanness to it,” said the second taster, Josh Schonwald, a Chicago-based journalist who shunned the bun and all the trimmings to concentrate on the beef. “But the bite feels like a conventional hamburger.”
The taste test, which came after five years of research, is a key step toward making lab meat a culinary phenomenon, said Mark Post, whose team at Maastricht University developed the burger.
Post and his university colleagues made the meat from the muscle cells of two organic cows.
Scientists said the cells were extracted during a painless biopsy.
The cells were put into a nutrient solution to help them develop into muscle tissue, growing into small strands of meat. It took nearly 20,000 strands to make a single 5-ounce patty.
The $330,000 stem-cell project was funded by Google founder Sergey Brin, who expressed concerns about the meat industry’s treatment of animals.
“When you see how these cows are treated, it’s certainly something I’m not comfortable with,” he said.
The initiative also has the endorsement of PETA.
“As long as there’s anybody who’s willing to kill a chicken, a cow or a pig to make their meal, we are all for this,” said Ingrid Newkirk, the president of the animal-rights group.
“Instead of the millions and billions being slaughtered now, we could just clone a few cells to make burgers or chops.”
The burger was seasoned with salt, egg powder, breadcrumbs, red beet juice and saffron. It was cooked in oil and butter.
Post said it was crucial that the burger “look, feel and taste like the real thing.”
The Food and Agriculture Organization predicts global meat consumption will double by 2050 as more people in developing countries can afford it.
Raising animals destined for the dinner table takes up about 70 percent of all agricultural land.
Stem-cell meat is unlikely to hit store shelves for another 20 years. It would take that long to refine the technology, encourage other producers and scientists to get involved, and overcome any regulatory issues, experts said
The Dutch researchers said the same techniques could be used to reproduce just about any meat.
For now, the process is limited to processed meat because it is the easiest kind to replicate. Processed, or minced, meat accounts for about half of the meat market.
Post said it should be possible to make more complicated cuts in the future but it would involve more advanced tissue-engineering techniques.
He said it might be possible to make a steak in about 20 years.