Buy bioengineered chicken fillet!

Poultry meat was grown in the laboratory

Julia Korowski, XX2 century

Representatives of the American startup Memphis Meats said that they managed to grow "the world's first pure poultry meat" from animal cells. Vegetarians will surely like the product: no living creature was harmed during its manufacture. However, it is still expensive – about $ 18,000 (about a million rubles) per kilogram.

The term "clean meat" was proposed last year by the non-profit organization The Good Food Institute as a substitute for "cultured meat". The Good Food Institute promotes the use of plant-based foods and meat grown in the laboratory. "Clean" food is called not only because it is obtained without killing animals, but also because there are no bacteria and antibiotics in it.

Memphis Meats specialists cultivate cells in the laboratory, add nutrients and, in the end, get quite large chunks. Last year they made beef and made meatballs out of it. Now it's the bird's turn – the startup has grown chicken and duckling. The chicken was fried, and the duck was baked and seasoned with orange sauce. People who were lucky enough to try a "clean" roast told The Wall Street Journal that the meat tastes almost the same as usual.

"Chicken is the most popular protein food in America. On average, the country's residents eat 90 pounds (40 kg) a year, and the annual market volume is about $ 90 billion," the company said in a press release. "Duck is of great importance for many regions, including mainland China, which consumes more than 6 billion pounds a year (about 3 billion kilograms)." Representatives of the company assure that they are driven not only by commercial interest. The main goal is to change the food industry, to get meat in a way that will not harm either the environment or the health of consumers. This idea seems quite reasonable, if we recall that animal husbandry in its current form is extremely inefficient.

The production of cultured meat on an industrial scale is still far away. And it costs a lot: according to MTI Technology Review, half a kilo of chicken meat from Memphis Meats costs $ 9,000. The company promises to significantly reduce the price and bring the product to the consumer market in 4 years. Over the past year, the meat from the test tube has fallen in price more than twice, so let's hope that they will succeed.

The funny thing here is that there is no nutrient medium for growing cell cultures yet and in the near future no nutrient medium is expected, except for the blood serum of calf embryos. So with all the inefficiency of natural animal husbandry, the prospects of feeding the population with synthetic meat, fish, poultry and other animal products remains at best a matter of the very distant future - VM.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  20.03.2017