Fake meat debate
Meat grown from cells in a lab may soon be available. Is it viable?
SOME refer to it as “cultured” or “cell-based” meat. Others call it “fake” meat. What is it?
It’s a new technology to grow meat in the laboratory and it may show up in the meat sections of our supermarkets someday soon.
Cultured meat has nothing to do with its social standing. Rather, it is meat produced when cells from animals are “cultured” or grown under laboratory conditions.
Not to be confused with plantbased meat substitutes made from vegetable proteins, cell-based meat is grown from actual animal cells. So, it is an animal product, not a vegetarian option.
Why do we do need another method to produce meat?
Some say it’s to keep up with the growing demand for quality protein sources in our expanding world. Others say it is an alternate way to produce meat for human consumption.
Is cell-cultured meat the same as regular meat? Depends on who you talk to.
Muscle fibres produced in the laboratory are the same as that found in a steak, say leading researchers in this technology from Maastricht University in The Netherlands.
Yet, they also say that they need to tweak the procedure to get the same nutrient content, such as iron, that is found in red meat.
Some groups have petitioned the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to better define the term “meat”, so we know if we are buying the traditionally produced type or the cultured variety.
Hopefully, we will see some labeling guidelines on these products before they show up in grocery stores.
And that may be a few years. Regulatory issues and cost (the first lab-grown hamburger patty cost a mere US$330,000 [RM1.375mil] to produce) could delay the introduction of cultured meat into our food supply for a while.
Are there any concerns with growing meat in the laboratory? Depending on who you listen to, some groups say this method of meat production would result in less land and water use.
Other organisations voice concerns that growing meat in the lab would impact the environment more negatively than our traditional way of raising cattle as it would take massive amounts of energy resources to produce meat in this way.
Nutritionally, these products would be similar in some nutrients such as protein, and different in others. Scientists say they are looking into modifying the type of fat in labgrown meat, for example.
Lastly, what will cultured meat be called? Is it real “meat” or a meat-type product? That remains for either the US Department of Agriculture or FDA or both agencies to decide.
For now, we can call it something new on the horizon. – The Monterey County Herald/Tribune News Service