Lab-grown burger gets taste test in London

[azurnoir]

Source: upi

Dutch scientists at Maastricht University in the Netherlands announced last year that they had successfully grown muscle tissue from stem cells, and now that meat has finally reached the table.

In May, Dr. Mark Post announced his team had successfully assembled 20,000 strips of the lab-grown meat into a hamburger. After informal taste tests in the lab, Post said the meat "tastes reasonably good."

In a public demonstration Monday, three people tasted the in-vitro, or cultured, meat. Chicago-based food writer Josh Schonwald said "the bite feels like a conventional hamburger" but that the meat tasted "like an animal-protein cake."

.............

Researchers used myosatellite stem cells -- basic cells that can turn into more specific cells -- and fetal calf serum to make the cultured meat, though they say in future they will be able to use a non-animal material. For the final product, scientists used beetroot juice to give the meat a pink color.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Blog/2013/08/05/Lab-grown-burger-gets-taste-test-in-London/9501375713168/#ixzz2b7KtMm6N

[onehandle]

1. I'll stick with veggie burgers, thanks. nt

[matthews]

2. Wonder what their definition of 'reasonably' is? nt

[Gregorian]

3. As kids my friends and I would joke about the day there were so many humans we'd grow meat in a lab

Whether or not that's why they're doing it, it's still eerie as hell.

[lunatica]

4. This is very interesting

The possibilities are endless. When this catches on the world as we know it will change in a very fundamental way. Imagine no more hunger anywhere and no more killing animals for food.

[KittyWampus]

7. there are these things called "plants".

[lunatica]

9. Yes. And in droughts people starve because plants don't grow

Whereas lab meat isn't dependent on billions of living livestock or the plants they consume.

[Duer 157099]

12. Do you think the people who die from droughts

will have labs to grow meat in?

If you say no, they can import the meat from the labs that do grow it, then I'd say: yeah, they can do that now with other food sources.

BTW, the cells in culture need fetal calf serum to live. If the drought doesn't allow cattle to live, where would they get the calf serum from?

Bunch of practical questions...

[lunatica]

13. So you think there are no solutions to your questions?

I think all your questions can and will be answered eventually.

[Duer 157099]

14. I agree, eventually

but saying that people die because plants can't live without water, but that lab meat can replace that source, is what I'm talking about specifically.

[thesquanderer]

15. I'd love to be able to eat beef and pork...

...without killing cows and pigs.

I just don't enjoy eating plants.

[Bosonic]

5. Excellent!

Adding in the no cruelty aspect to the above resource efficiencies makes this an important advancement.

[seltzerwater]

6. Why dont they grow something we can actually use like

Oh, I dont know ... Maybe Kidney's and Liver's

[lunatica]

10. They are working on it.

Here's the site for the UC Berkeley Stem Cell Center. There are many others.

http://stemcellcenter.berkeley.edu/

[Posteritatis]

11. We can't use food? Also, "they" can only work on one thing? (nt)

[valerief]

16. The 1% have all the kidneys and livers they need. Oh, you mean for the

99%. Why in hell would they do that? How would that make rich people richer (the most important thing in the world)?

[KittyWampus]

8. I'll stick with food more directly made from sunlight.

[PD Turk]

17. video of the taste test