The burger, made with beef mince grown from stem cells, is less than a year away from being produced, Dutch scientists say. And they believe it could pave the way for eating meat without the need for animals being slaughtered.
The scientists predict that over the next few decades the world's population will increase so quickly that there will not be enough livestock to feed everyone.
As a result, they say, laboratory-grown beef, chicken and lamb could become normal. The scientists are currently developing a burger which will be grown from 10,000 stem cells extracted from cattle, which are then left in the lab to multiply more than a billion times to produce muscle tissue similar to beef. The product is called in vitro meat.
Mark Post, professor of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, who is behind the project, said: "I don't see any way you could rely on old-fashioned livestock in the coming decades. In vitro meat will be the only choice left.
"We are trying to prove to the world we can make a product out of this, and we need a courageous person who is willing to be the first to taste it.
"If no one comes forward, then it might be me."
Professor Post told Scientific American magazine that he thought the first test-tube burger could be made within 12 months. In 2009, scientists from the same university grew strips of pork using the same method. They admitted it was not particularly appetising, being grey with a similar texture to calamari.
Fish fillets have been grown in a New York laboratory using cells taken from goldfish muscle tissue.
Even if the initial results do not taste quite the same as proper meat, scientists are convinced the public will soon get used to it.
The world's meat consumption is expected to double by 2050. The scientists believe that the test-tube burger is only the first stage in a food revolution that might solve the problem.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/test-tube-hamburger-a-taste-of-things-to-come/story-e6freuy9-1226083075037
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