Artificial meat: UK scientists growing 'bacon' in labs

By Helen Briggs BBC News, Science and Environment

19 March 2019

British scientists have joined the race to produce meat grown in the lab rather than reared on the hoof.

Scientists at the University of Bath have grown animal cells on blades of grass, in a step towards cultured meat.

If the process can be reproduced on an industrial scale, meat lovers might one day be tucking into a slaughter-free supply of "bacon".

The researchers say the UK can move the field forward through its expertise in medicine and engineering.

Lab-based meat products are not yet on sale, though a US company, Just, has said its chicken nuggets, grown from cells taken from the feather of chicken that is still alive, will soon be in a few restaurants.

Chemical engineer Dr Marianne Ellis, of the University of Bath, sees cultured meat as "an alternative protein source to feed the world". Cultured pig cells are being grown in her laboratory, which could one day lead to bacon raised entirely off the hoof.

In the future, you would take a biopsy from a pig, isolate stem (master) cells, grow more cells, then put them into a bioreactor to massively expand them, says postgraduate student Nick Shorten of Aberystwyth University.

"And the pig's still alive and happy and you get lots of bacon at the end."

To replicate the taste and texture of bacon will take years of research. For structure, the cells must be grown on a scaffold.

Read on

Artificial Meat – Not As Far-fetched As You Might Think

Are test tube burgers coming to a grocery store near you?  Sounds like science fiction, and until recently, it actually was.

Now, the prospect of lab-grown meat appearing on our supermarket shelves is closer than ever. We aren’t talking about the whole cow, however. That would be an “udderly” different story.

Synthetic or test-tube meat involves taking a small amount of cells from a living animal and growing it into lumps of muscle tissue in the lab.  In theory, this can then be turned into meat for human consumption.

Scientists believe lab-grown meat could not only save animal lives, but could also help reduce the environmental impact of meat production.

Although the technology to create artificial meat has been around since the turn of the century – NASA looked into developing it for their astronaut program – making it edible and commercial viable remained out of reach. The other major hurdle for lab-grown meat to overcome is consumer acceptance. It is unknown whether consumers will accept it as an alternative to farm animal-based meat.

Scientist Gabor Forgacs, of the University of Missouri, specializes in tissue engineering. He works to create replacement tissue and organs for humans, and realized the same technology could be used to engineer meat for human consumption.

According to a CNN report, Forgacs’ company, Modern Meadows, has already attracted investors interested in the technology, including funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At the moment, though, he doesn’t think that this will be a product for the masses. More likely, lab-grown meat will be a niche item, like Kobe beef which current sells for $125 – $295 per kilo.

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