Lab grown burger could provide sustainable source of meat

This content item was originally published on www.foodnavigator.com, a William Reed online publication.

29-Jun-2011 - Last updated on 18-Aug-2020 at 11:39 GMT

Researchers believe that meats could soon be produced in a lab rather than a field (image: Dr Mark Post)

Researchers developing new meat products grown from stem cells say that the first products, which should be ready within the next year, could begin a movement to more sustainable meat production.

Speaking with FoodNavigator, Mark Post, professor of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, who is leading the research into lab grown meats, said that his team are currently aiming to produce small strands of meat which can then be processed to produce burgers and sausage type foods.

However, he said that the long term goals of the project have to be to grow much larger pieces of meat, such as steaks and chops, if the process was to succeed in helping to solve the ever growing problem of world hunger.

Post said that the current project is a ‘proof of principle’ project, which will require a lot more development before lab grown meats are commercially viable. However he added that he did see the technology being used commercially “not too far in the future.”

“Our goal is to build one burger in the coming year. It’s going to cost 250,000 Euros, so it’s a very expensive burger … but hopefully this will create enough enthusiasm and financial support to upscale and economise the processes, so that we can improve and start to think about a real manufacturing process,” said Post.