Obesity expert says lab-grown meat lacks any vital nutrients

A LEADING obesity expert has warned of the dangers of lab-grown meat that could be on menus and supermarket shelves across Ireland within two years.

Professor Donal O’Shea, the HSE’s national clinical lead for obesity, said lab-grown meat was taking ‘ultra-processed food to a new level’. And he warned: ‘No iteration in ultraprocessed anything has ever been healthy.’

Lab-grown meat, known as cultivated meat, is produced by taking the stem cells of an animal and growing them in massive stainless-steel tanks in a laboratory.

This is done by feeding the cells the same nutrients an animal

‘Something you have to greet with caution’

would normally consume on a farm. As more muscle fibres and connective tissues grow, the end product resembles beef mince.

Professor O’Shea told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘Every step towards processed and ultra-processed foods has historically been associated with less healthful nutrition and this is creating a new food through multiple incubations and processes, so it is something you have to greet with caution.

‘What makes a food processed or ultra-processed is literally the number of processes it goes through.

‘And to go from being a cell, to a group of cells, to it being a cultured steak on a plate – before the steak even gets near being cooked

- you have an ultra-processed product.’

Lab-grown meat has come a long way since the first beef burger was created in 2013. Costing a whopping €250,000, it was unveiled at a news conference in London and streamed to thousands around the world. This summer,

the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) said it was only a ‘matter of time’ before lab-grown meat enters the Irish market.

Dr Pat O’Mahony, FSAI chief specialist in food science and technology, said: ‘I don’t see it coming this year. It could be next year, but it’s only a matter of time.

‘I think it’s a lucrative market if you want to sell a food product.’ But Dr O’Mahony insisted artificial foods will go through a ‘long and arduous’ authorisation process before they appear on restaurant menus and on supermarket shelves.

Animal welfare groups welcomed the development of labgrown meat which, unlike other substitutes, is genetically indistinguishable from traditional meat.

However, Professor O’Shea said natural meat offers more to our diet than simply protein and fat, and said we should not be hasty replacing it.

He told the MoS: ‘We need to think about what it’s replacing. Natural meat has micronutrients, vitamins and minerals.

‘If you are culturing cells and growing them, it may just have the protein content of the meat without any of the vitamins, minerals or trace elements which are important in a healthy diet.

‘Meat is a combination of protein and fat and that is attractive to both taste and texture. Fat is an important part of your diet in moderation.’