In-vitro beef burger, anyone?

D A corner of west ondon will see culinary and scientific history made on onday when scientists cook and serve up the world’s first lab grown beef burger.

he in vitro burger, cultured from cattle stem cells, the first example of what its creator says could provide an answer to global food shortages and help combat climate change, will be fried in a pan and tasted by two volunteers.

The burger is the result of years of research by utch scientist ark Post, a vascular biologist at the niversity of aastricht, who is working to show how meat grown in petri dishes might one day be a true alternative to meat from livestock

The meat in the burger has been made by knitting together around 20,000 strands of protein cultured from cattle stem cells in Post’s lab

The tissue is grown by placing the cells in a ring, like a donut, around a hub of nutrient gel, Post explained

To prepare the burger, scientists combined the cultured beef with other ingredients normally used in burgers, such as salt, breadcrumbs and egg powder Red beet juice and saffron have been added to bring out its natural colors

Our burger is made from muscle cells taken from a cow e have not altered them in any way, Post said in a statement on Friday For it to succeed it has to look, feel and hopefully taste like the real thing

Viable alternative?

uccess, in Post’s view, would mean not just a tasty burger, but also the prospect of finding a sustainable, ethical and environmentally friendly alternative to meat production

According to a 200 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization FAO , industrialized agriculture contributes on a massive scale to climate change, air pollution, land degradation, energy use, deforestation and biodiversity decline

The report, entitled ivestock’s ong hadow, said the meat industry contributes about 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and this proportion is expected to grow as consumers in fast- countries such as China and ndia eat more meat

According to the orld ealth Organization O , annual meat production is projected to rise to million tons by 20 0 from 21 million tons in 1 -1 , and demand from a growing world population is expected to rise beyond that

Post cites FAO figures suggesting demand for meat is expected to increase by more than two-thirds by 20 0

Animal welfare campaigners applauded the arrival of cultured meat and predicted a great future for it

n- vitro technology will spell the end of lorries full of cows and chickens, abattoirs and factory farming, the People for the thical Treatment of Animals P TA campaign group said in a statement t will reduce carbon emissions, conserve water and make the food supply safer

A study published in 2011 comparing the relative environmental impacts of various types of meat, including lamb, pork, beef and cultured meat, said the lab-grown product has by far the least impact on the environment

anna Tuomisto, who conducted the study at Oxford niversity’s ildlife Conservation Research nit, found that growing meats in- vitro would use percent to 0 percent less energy, emit 0 percent to percent less greenhouse gas and use around percent less land than conventionally produced animal meat

hile onday’s fry-up will be a world first and only an initial proof- of- concept, the utch scientist reckons commercial production of cultured beef could begin within the next 20 years

hat we are going to attempt is important because hope it will show cultured beef has the answers to major problems that the world faces, he added