Food safety
Cultivated or lab-grown meat has divided opinion since it was introduced in the 2010s. Champions say it can make food systems more sustainable, ethical and equitable. Critics aren’t so sure. What is clear is that if this foodstuff is to reach markets outside of Singapore and the United States, more information on safety, and deeper regulator understanding, is needed. Dan Cave speaks to Good Food Institute Europe’s Seth Roberts, and The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ Masami Takeuchi, to find out more.
Hard cell I
n August 2013, a hamburger was fried, served and eaten by three people in London. So far, so unremarkable. Yet this simple meal was broadcast across the world, sparking countless headlines. It was considered, in short, to be a breakthrough culinary moment. Why? No animal slaughter was required to bring this burger to table. Instead, it was made from cultivated meat: a cow muscle grown in a laboratory. The only part of the animal needed to create a meal are stem cells – which are then ‘fed’ vital nutrients and growth factors to cultivate a meat product. Yet if champions cited this as an important breakthrough in making the global food system more ethical, sustainable, and equitable, critics were rather less convinced. Josh Schonwald, an expert on the future of food who tried the innovative hamburger, said the meat tasted “like an animal protein cake”. Even the burger’s creator, Dr Mark Post, a researcher at the University of Maastricht, pointed out the lack of
fattiness in the product, crucial to an appealing taste. Elsewhere, others pointed out this product would have no immediate efficacy with it costing a staggering $325,000. As one BBC journalist pointed out, demand for meat – and alternative proteins – had already peaked anyway. All the same, lab-grown meat prices have dropped by over 99% in the decade since this novel dining experience. A growing global population, coupled with volatile food production processes and markets, are reinvigorating positive interest in alternate foodstuffs. Even when faced with a mixed reception to the first unveiling of lab-grown meat, Dr Post told journalists he was “very happy” with the burger.
The growth of lab-grown
Notwithstanding divided opinion, commercial and regulatory, interest in cultivated meat has rocketed over the past decade. By 2022, $2.6bn in investment
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