Lab-grown meat promises burgers without the bovine

At first glance, a sliver of pallid muscle tissue anchored in a culture dish and surrounded by a liquid growth medium does not look like an appetising alternative to a juicy steak, but by the end of the year it will form a component of an edible burger.

Prototype costs mean that first burger will cost a whopping £200,000 which, along with its novelty, has led to speculation that experimental celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal will be the one to do the honours behind the griddle.

The burger will be the culmination of a project to create edible meat from stem cells, otherwise known as in-vitro meat, led by Mark Post, Professor of Vascular Physiology and Tissue Engineering at Maastricht University.

Building on research started in 2004, in order to grow the meat, muscle stem cells are obtained from a tiny piece of fresh cow muscle obtained through a biopsy and multiplied in a growth medium supplemented with calf serum.

Electrical stimulation matures early muscle cells into mature skeletal muscles. As they grow, they are fed with a nutrient source, such as algae extracts. The muscle cells then bulk up into solid muscle fibre and are ‘trained’ into shape along a polymeric sugar scaffold.

Growing outside the animal and without the benefit of years of grazing, the texture is not nature-identical and will need to be subjected to established food technology methods to enhance taste and texture. To further improve meat-like qualities, researchers are working on cultivating fat tissue and enhancing the expression of the oxygen-binding muscle protein myoglobin.

Advantages for animals

The promise of meat without the slaughter and perceived mistreatment of animals in high-intensity farming environments has attracted the attention of animal rights groups. The US wing of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in 2008 offered a $1m prize for the first company that can produce a commercially-viable form of lab-grown chicken.

"While we continue to advocate vegetarianism and veganism as the best diet that’s available for the planet and for human beings, [Post’s] is a route for those people that are not yet ready to become vegetarians where they could be eating meat without any animal suffering involved," said Alistair Currie, Policy Adviser for PETA UK.

"But as per the PETA US press release, for those people that are addicted to their meat, this is a methadone to their heroin."

PETA picked chicken because it is the animal that is killed in the largest numbers, and the organisation believes a lab-grown alternative would have the biggest impact in terms of number of animal lives saved. While Post’s research would not qualify for the prize as it concerns beef, PETA supports it as a genuine attempt to stimulate public and scientific interest in this work, a similar version of which is also being carried out in the US.

Though the new method of meat production replaces the source of the meat rather than aiming to wean diners off it altogether, PETA supports the development because it will save animal lives and suffering, assuaging the negative connotations associated with meat.

"We don’t have anything against meat, we have something against slaughterhouses and factory farms and the exploitation of animals to produce this thing called meat," said Currie.

"So if you can produce meat without the exploitation and killing of animals, then that has to be a good thing."

In-vitro-meat could also provide a potential solution for the food crisis facing a rapidly-growing population, with countries in expanding markets such as India and China nurturing an increasing taste for meat while the availability of grazing land remains a finite resource.

"While animal welfare is our primary interest, we think that all concerned citizens should have an interest in the environmental consequences of meat consumption and the wasted resources that go along with that, which is another reason why this appears to be a viable commercial proposition," added Currie.

"Many people may say why bother to produce this when we already have a system to produce meat. The answer is that system is destroying our planet, producing greenhouses gases, contributing to the soil erosion, water pollution and deforestation that most informed people are aware meat contributes to."

While in-vitro meat offers a solution to many of the ethical and environmental problems posed by meat production, it is still animal tissue rather than a fully non-meat alternative.

"Although a number of vegetarians, vegans and animal rights activists have some disquiet because of the nature of the product, we believe this is potentially a very positive thing," said Currie.

"We want to keep the debate open, we want people to have an open mind to this and to recognise what we’re doing right now is not sustainable and this is just one of the many solutions that is available."

Currie recognises that Post’s research is at an early stage and that the resulting product is going to be more suitable for things like burgers, where the addition of spices and other flavourings give a large part of the flavour.

"It’s not as if meat products are entirely dependent on the animal muscle for their flavouring. Most people are aware that sausages are the sweepings off the abattoir floor mixed with spices and encased in fat."

Legislating the novel

Like any other new foodstuff battling for space on our supermarket shelves, in-vitro meat faces a lengthy legislative process before being made available to the general public. As the competent authority for novel foods in the UK, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) says it is closely following emerging technologies and developments concerning novel protein sources as food.

An FSA spokesperson said: "In-vitro or cultured meat is not yet commercially viable, but the technology used to produce cultured meat could be advanced enough for trials to take place. Any novel food, or food produced using a novel production process, must undergo a stringent and independent safety assessment before it is placed on the market."

Explaining the process that could be faced, the FSA spokesperson added: "Anyone seeking approval of an in-vitro meat product would have to provide a dossier of evidence to show the product is safe, nutritionally equivalent to existing meat products and will not mislead the consumer. This would be evaluated under the EU regulation for novel foods, prior to a decision on authorisation."

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the UK department responsible for policy and regulations on the environment, food and rural affairs. Though lab-grown meat takes Defra outside of it farming milieu, the department still has a responsibility over new foodstuffs.

A Defra spokesperson said: "Consumers are protected by law requiring food to be labelled accurately. If people are concerned a product is not as it’s described, they can complain to their local council, which can prosecute traders."

Meet the new meat

In-vitro meat provides just one potential solution to the problem of feeding a growing population while avoiding negative environmental impact. Although one lucky diner will eat a very exclusive burger grown in the laboratory before the end of the year, it will take much longer before the general public gets to greet the new meat. Before that time, it faces a lengthy process of testing and legislation.