Professor John Hunt: “Is this what we want to develop further in the future as an alternative source of meat to farming animals?”
Scientists from Maastricht University have used stem cells, extracted from cow muscle tissue, to develop the first in vitro meat burger.
The aim of the project is to offer a potential solution to the world’s food shortage. Press and food critics were invited to taste the first lab-burger at a news conference in London.
Professor John Hunt, from the University’s Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, said: “The realisation that we can grow meat in the laboratory, in culture whilst not commercially competitive for everyday supermarket shelves, raises the right questions and challenges our values as humans.
“Is this what we want to develop further in the future as an alternative source of meat to farming animals?
“From an industrial perspective scaling up will be the issue; from a consumer perspective, we have to ask does it taste the same, but different, or is it just like the real thing and worth eating?”
For more information on the news story visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23576143
