In recent years, companies around the world have been developing cultivated “meats” for human consumption. They are not doing it the normal way via cows, etc. in pastures, but via cultivation in laboratories.
One of these companies is Meatable, a Dutch company. Meatable aims to create “real” meat without causing any harm to the environment or to animals. The company has been developing and refining its process since it first launched back in 2018. The team hope it may attract meat-eaters away from traditional meat products.
The process
The process used to make the “meat” products is quite interesting. With just a single cell, they can cultivate sausages, etc. The products us ‘opti-ox’ technology that requires only a single-cell sample from the animal, which can be taken without harming it.
The process doesn’t require foetal bovine serum (FBS), a process which ahs conventionally been used in cultured meat production as a supplement for cell feed.
FBS
FBS is quite a controversial ingredient as it is harvested from bovine foetuses taken from pregnant cows during the slaughter process. It is currently taken from a cardiac puncture without any form of anaesthesia, exposing the foetus to pain or discomfort.
Growing the pork sausage takes a bit of time, though of course not as long as an animal—only a few weeks. It also has the same texture, structure, glossiness and pronounced pork flavour of one made from ground pork shoulder meat. As a result of moisture within the fat tissue evaporating in the hot oil, it even sizzles.
EU Regulations
Presently, Europeanregulations prevent cultivated meat from being sold in shops without approval of regulators, but the Meatable team are hopeful their product will be on shelves by 2025.
They have been working with regulators in the Netherlands to support the passing of a motion which may enable the wider testing of cultivated meat by the end of 2022. They will also continuously refine their range with the help of chefs and food scientists until it’s close to indistinguishable from traditional meat as possible.
Number of countries
Quite a number of countries have the have the technology to cultivate meat. A total of almost 40 start-up lab meat companies and over $500 million has been invested in lab-grown meat. There are labs in the USA, Israel, the Netherlands, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Spain, France, Australia, Hong Kong, UK Belgium, Russia, Argentina, Turkey, and India.
The central contention
The central contention those who are for these lab-grown meats is the idea that one day soon, humans will no longer need to raise livestock to enjoy animal protein, we will be able to grow meat in giant stainless-steel bioreactors—and enough of it to feed the world. These changes are to fundamentally change the way that human societies interact with our planet, making the care, slaughter, and processing of billions of farm animals the relic of a “barbaric” past.
Against production and consumption
There are, however, plenty of things which can be said against the production and consumption of lab-grown meats. For example, there are significant amounts of animal cell slurry similar to that which is used in vaccine production.
The process used to make the meat is extremely technical, resource-intensive, and expensive. It cannot be used to produce cheap, abundant food for humans. This is more wishful thinking than science. As such, it will likely never be a cost-competitive food.
Barriers in thermodynamics, cell metabolism, bioreactor design, ingredient costs, facility construction, and other factors also contribute to its great cost.
The real question
So, the question isn’t whether companies are able to culture animal protein in the lab—drug companies have been doing that for decades. It’s whether that approach canactually feed a meaningful number of people.
Ingredients
The ingredients of the “meats” are also questionable. The ingredients would make a chemistry department gasp in horror. They contain everything from foetal human stem cells to unknown toxins and poisons.
Some of the chemicals found in the “meat” include tertiary butylhydroquinone, magnesium carbonate, erythrosine (red #3), propylene glycol, and ferric orthophosphate. They’re also full of sodium (more than real meat is), and saturated fat. With all these ‘nasties’ in them, it appears to me that the goal of the creation of these franken foods isn’t to make available good, healthy meats to a wider number of people, but to replace the real meat with franken-foods. We can speculate all we want as to why they’re being created, but it seems clear it's not for humanity’s good.