First reaction: lab-made burger short on flavor
(we
can make a jelly bean taste like popcorn or newly mowed grass, we can
make beaver ass taste like raspberry and we can’t make meat taste like
meat? I’m not buyin’ it,we just need to try
harder.)
MARIA CHENG, AP
LONDON (AP) — They bit, they chewed, but had hoped for more flavor.
Two volunteers who participated in the first public frying of hamburger grown in a lab said Monday that it had the texture of meat but was short of flavor because of the lack of fat.
Mark
Post, whose team at Maastricht University in the Netherlands developed
the burger, hopes that making meat in labs could eventually help feed
the world and fight climate change. That
goal is many years distant, at best.
Sergey
Brin, a co-founder of Google, appeared on a video shown at the event
and announced that he funded the 250,000-euro ($330,000) project because
of his concern for animal welfare.
"I
would say it's close to meat. I miss the salt and pepper," said
Austrian nutritionist Hanni Ruetzler, one of the volunteer tasters. Both
shunned the bun and sliced tomatoes to concentrate
on the meat.
"The
absence is the fat, it's a leanness to it, but the bite feels like a
conventional hamburger," said U.S. journalist Josh Schonwald. He added
that he had rarely tasted a hambuger,
as he did on Monday, "without ketchup or onions or jalapenos or bacon."
Monday's
taste test, coming after five years of research, is a key step toward
making lab meat a culinary phenomenon. Post called it "a good start."
Brin expressed high hopes for the technology.
"We're
trying to create the first cultured beef hamburger. From there I'm
optimistic we can really scale by leaps and bounds," he said on the
video.
Post said it's crucial that the burger has the "look, feel and taste like the real thing."
Despite the tasters concern about flavor, scientists say that can be tweaked.
"Taste
is the least (important) problem since this could be controlled by
letting some of the stem cells develop into fat cells," said Stig
Omholt, director of biotechnology at the Norwegian
University of Life Sciences. Adding fat to the burgers this way would
probably be healthier than getting it from naturally chunky cows, Omholt
said before Monday's test. He was not involved in the project.
Post
and colleagues made the meat from the muscle cells of two organic cows.
The cells were put into a nutrient solution to help them develop into
muscle tissue, growing into small strands
of meat.
It
took nearly 20,000 strands to make a single 140-gram (5-ounce) patty,
which for Monday's taste test was seasoned with salt, egg powder,
breadcrumbs, red beet juice and saffron.
"I'm
a vegetarian, but I would be first in line to try this," said Jonathan
Garlick, a stem cell researcher at Tufts University School of Dental
Medicine in Boston. He has used similar
techniques to make human skin but wasn't involved in the burger
research.
Experts
say new ways of producing meat are needed to satisfy growing
carnivorous appetites without exhausting resources. By 2050, the Food
and Agriculture Organization predicts global
meat consumption will double as more people in developing countries can
afford it. Raising animals destined for the dinner table takes up about
70 percent of all agricultural land.
The animal rights group PETA has thrown its support behind the lab-meat initiative.
"As
long as there's anybody who's willing to kill a chicken, a cow or a pig
to make their meal, we are all for this," said Ingrid Newkirk, PETA's
president and co-founder. "Instead of
the millions and billions (of animals) being slaughtered now, we could
just clone a few cells to make burgers or chops."
Post and his colleagues had tasted the meat in the lab, and he said they cooked a test burger on Sunday.
"The
first (lab-made) meat products are going to be very exclusive," said
Isha Datar, director of New Harvest, an international nonprofit that
promotes meat alternatives. "These burgers
won't be in Happy Meals before someone rich and famous is eating them."
Only
one patty was used for the taste test, and the testers each took less
than half. Post said he would take the leftovers home and let his kids
have a taste.
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