A £200,000 burger could help save the world – science fiction or science fact?
You probably saw the media coverage in the past few days about the laboratory-grown meat. Dr Mark Post, head of physiology at Maastricht University, believes this will become a reality and plans to unveil a single complete burger – produced at a cost of more than £200,000 – this October. He admits, however, that mass production is 10 to 20 years away, so synthetic burgers won’t be appearing in your local supermarket anytime soon.
The burger is produced by taking stem cells and growing them under controlled conditions to form thin strips of muscle.
So what are the potential benefits? Researchers believe lab-grown meat could reduce the environmental impact of livestock production as well as meet the growing appetite for meat from countries such as China and India.
While these are laudable aims, would consumers regard lab-grown- meat as ‘a step too far’ and will the costs of production fall to a level that is competitive with traditional meat products?
As the competent authority for novel foods in the UK, the Food Standards Agency is closely following emerging technologies and developments concerning novel protein sources as food. In vitro or cultured meat is not yet commercially viable and any novel food, or food produced using a novel production process, would need to undergo a stringent and independent safety assessment before it is placed on the market.
Anyone seeking approval for a synthetic meat product would have to provide a dossier of evidence to show that the product is safe, nutritionally equivalent to existing meat products, and will not mislead the consumer. This dossier would then be evaluated under the EU framework for novel foods, prior to a decision on authorisation of the new product.
With demand for meat expected to double in the next 40 years, could this be the future of food?