Yum, yum, eat up: Test-tube beefburger made from mince grown from stem cells is on the way
By
Sophie Borland 26th June 2011
The real thing: In future beefburgers will be produced from stem cells made in laboratories
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HOW THE BURGER IS MADE FROM STEM CELLS This is how the process will work for hamburgers made from stem cells.
1, A sample of the cell is taken from a healthy cow.
2, 10,000 stem cells are extracted from the sample.
3,Cells divide and billions grow under laboratory conditions in a dish.
4,Young muscle cells are grown on a a 'scaffold' that puts tension on them to bulk them up.
5, Muscle fibres are minced and turned into burgers.
The scientists are currently developing a burger which will be grown from 10,000 stem cells extracted from cattle, which are then left in the lab to multiply more than a billion times to produce muscle tissue similar to beef.
Mark Post, professor of physiology at Maastricht University in Holland, who is behind the project, said: 'We are trying to prove to the world we can make a product out of this,”
'In vitro meat will be the only choice left. I don’t see any way you could rely on old-fashioned livestock in the coming decades.”
'We need a courageous person who is willing to be the first to taste it. If no one comes forward then it might be me.'
He told Scientific American magazine that he thought the first burger could be made within a year.
In 2009 scientists from the same university grew strips of pork using the same method.
But they admitted it wasn’t particularly appetising and was grey in colour with a texture similar to calamari.
And scientists in New York also managed to grow fish fillets in the lab from cells taken from goldfish muscle tissue.
Even if the initial results don’t taste quite the same as traditional meat, scientists are convinced the public will soon get used to it especially if they don’t have a choice.
The world’s meat consumption is expected to double by 2050 as the population increases.
Many scientists believe that there could be a food crisis because the number of crops and livestock will simply not be able to keep pace with demand.
The Dutch researchers – who are currently leading the world in the production of artificial meat- believe that the test-tube burger is only first stage in a new food revolution that might be able to solve this problem.
Eventually they hope to be able to manufacture a wide range of meat products.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2008347/Eat-Test-tube-hamburger-mince-grown-stem-cells-way.html#ixzz1QQmNKnaB
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