Dutch scientists develop artificial pork in lab

 

 

A network of Dutch research institutions has developed a technique to turn pig stem cells into meat, a development that could offer a green alternative to raising livestock.

 

If stem cells from one pig are multiplied by a factor of one million, the world would require one million fewer pigs to get the same amount of meat, said Mark Post, a biologist at Maastricht University of the In-vitro Meat Consortium.

 

So far the scientists have only succeeded in creating strips of meat about one centimetre long; to make a small pork chop, Post estimates it would take about 30 days of cell replication in the lab.

 

There are tantalising health possibilities in the technology.

 

Fish stem cells could be used to produce omega 3 fatty acids, which could be mixed with the lab-produced pork instead of the usual fats found in livestock meat. This could produce a hamburger that prevents heart attacks instead of causing them, said Jason Matheny, who has studied alternatives to conventional meat at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and is not involved in the Dutch research.

 

Post said the strips produced so far could be used as processed meat in sausages or hamburgers. The main problem is reproducing the protein content in regular meat: In livestock meat, protein makes up about 99% of the product; the lab meat is only about 80% protein, with the rest made up of mostly water and nucleic acids.

 

The texture of the meat is firm but a little squishy and moist because the lab meat has less protein content than conventional meat, according to Post, who added that the lower protein content means the meat probably would not taste like pork.

 

Some experts warn that lab-made meats might have potential dangers for human health. Emma Hockridge, policy manager at Soil Association, Britain's leading organic organisation, said there could be subtle impacts that need to be monitored as with any new technology.

 

It will also take some time to prove the new technology does not harm humans, she said. Hockridge also noted that organic farming relies on crop and livestock rotation, and that taking animals out of the equaculture could damage the ecosystem.

 

Some experts also doubted lab-produced meat could ever match the taste of real meat. Peter Ellis, a biochemistry expert at King's College London, said part of humans' enjoyment of eating meat depends on the very complicated muscle and fat structure, and it remains to be seen if that can be replicated.

 

But if proven harmless to health and the taste matches that of conventional meat, lab-produced meat could do wonders for the environment, said the experts. Switching to lab-produced meat could lower greenhouse gas emissions by up to 95%, according to Hanna Tuomisto, who studies the environmental impact of food production at Oxford University. Both land and water use would also drop by about 95%, she said.

 

If all the meat was replaced by cultured meat, the environmental impact would be huge, as one animal could produce many thousands of kg of meat. In addition, lab meat can be nurtured with relatively few nutrients like amino acids, fats and natural sugars, whereas livestock are fed huge amounts of traditional crops, she said.

 

Tuomisto said the technology could potentially increase the world's meat supply and help fight global hunger, but that would depend on how many factories there are producing the lab-made meat.

 

The scientists have not calculated how much the meat would cost to produce commercially, but because there would be much less land, water and energy required, the cost would be equivalent to or lower than that of conventional meat once production reached an industrial level.

 

But to produce meat at an industrial scale, very large bioreactors are needed, such as those used to produce vaccines or pasteurised milk, said Matheny. For the moment, the scientists are proposing to produce only processed meats like minced meat, hamburgers or hot dogs.

 

Several other groups in the US, Scandinavia and Japan are also researching on lab-meat, but the Dutch project is the most advanced, said Matheny, adding that the lab-meat could be on the market within the next few years.

 

Post, however, said it could take about another 10 years before the meat goes commercial. The scientists also said the technology should be transferable to other meats like chicken, beef and lamb.