Scientists unveiled the world's first lab-grown beef burger in London on Monday, frying it in a little oil and butter and serving it to volunteers in what they hope is the start of a food revolution.
The tasters pronounced the 140-gramme (about five-ounce) patty, developed at a cost of more than 250,000 euros ($330,000) with support from Google co-founder Sergey Brin, as "close to meat" in flavour and texture but not as juicy.
The so-called "cultured beef" was made using strands of meat grown from muscle cells taken from a living cow, mixed with salt, egg powder and breadcrumbs and coloured with beetroot juice and saffron.
Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in The Netherlands, who led the research, claimed it could replace ordinary beef in the diets of millions of people and in so doing reduce the huge environmental pressure caused by raising livestock.
Post insisted the artificial beef is safe, promising to give the leftovers from Monday's tasting to his children.
"I ate it myself a couple of times with no hesitation whatsoever... I would feel perfectly comfortable letting them taste it," he told journalists at the tasting.
Post acknowledged that the technology was at a very early stage but predicted the meat could be on supermarket shelves in 10 to 20 years. "This is just to show that we can do it," he said.
The first public tasting took place in a theatre in west London, where a professional chef cooked the burger over low heat at a kitchen counter similar to those used in TV cookery shows.
One of the volunteers, Austrian food researcher Hanni Ruetzler, cut into it carefully, before declaring: "It's close to meat. It's not that juicy, but the consistency is perfect."
US-based author Josh Schonwald, the other volunteer, added: "The absence is the fat. There's a leanness to it. But the bite feels like a conventional hamburger."
The tasters pronounced the 140-gramme (about five-ounce) patty, developed at a cost of more than 250,000 euros ($330,000) with support from Google co-founder Sergey Brin, as "close to meat" in flavour and texture but not as juicy.
The so-called "cultured beef" was made using strands of meat grown from muscle cells taken from a living cow, mixed with salt, egg powder and breadcrumbs and coloured with beetroot juice and saffron.
Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in The Netherlands, who led the research, claimed it could replace ordinary beef in the diets of millions of people and in so doing reduce the huge environmental pressure caused by raising livestock.
Post insisted the artificial beef is safe, promising to give the leftovers from Monday's tasting to his children.
"I ate it myself a couple of times with no hesitation whatsoever... I would feel perfectly comfortable letting them taste it," he told journalists at the tasting.
Post acknowledged that the technology was at a very early stage but predicted the meat could be on supermarket shelves in 10 to 20 years. "This is just to show that we can do it," he said.
The first public tasting took place in a theatre in west London, where a professional chef cooked the burger over low heat at a kitchen counter similar to those used in TV cookery shows.
One of the volunteers, Austrian food researcher Hanni Ruetzler, cut into it carefully, before declaring: "It's close to meat. It's not that juicy, but the consistency is perfect."
US-based author Josh Schonwald, the other volunteer, added: "The absence is the fat. There's a leanness to it. But the bite feels like a conventional hamburger."
-- AFP
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