'I Tried the World's First No-Kill, Lab-Grown Chicken Burger' (theguardian.com) 106
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: PhD in genetics might seem like an unusual requirement for the role of head chef. It makes more sense when the man running the kitchen is not just in charge of frying your chicken burger -- he created the meat himself. "This burger takes something between two to three days to grow," says Tomer Halevy as he chops red onions, iceberg lettuce and avocado. He proceeds to batter what appears to be a strip of raw chicken before dipping it in breadcrumbs. Halevy uses the word "grow" because chickens do not need to be slaughtered en masse to produce this type of meat. Cells taken from "source" chickens are cultured in a laboratory, creating potentially endless supplies of muscle and fat tissue. Some cells were removed from eggs, meaning the meat is from birds that were never even born. The result is the signature dish of a new venture in Israel, the Chicken, the world's first cultured meat restaurant experience. Still closed to the public owing to coronavirus restrictions, the eatery near Tel Aviv opened its doors to the Guardian for the first private visit by a journalist.
At the Chicken, bottles of red wine line the walls, black stools surround circular tables, and the warm glow of hanging bulbs lights the restaurant. The entire back wall is made of glass. Behind it is the production facility where lab-coated scientists wander around between large metal vats. It is petri-dish-to-table service. "The meat was made on the other side of the glass. That's true local production of meat," jokes Ido Savir, CEO of the restaurant's parent company, SuperMeat. The breaded patty is deep-fried in oil, before being placed on a sweet brioche bun, flavored by wasabi and chilli mayonnaise, with a side of sweet potato chips. Similar to many chicken burgers, it breaks and flakes when pulled apart and is extremely tender. It tastes, at least to this reporter, like a chicken burger.
Halevy, who also holds the role of head of product at SuperMeat, explains that muscle cells naturally contract when they are grown, making the fibers that result in the flakes of the burger that you would expect. While Halevy says he could make a recreation of a chicken breast -- with longer fibers and a dryer, denser bite -- one was not offered, and others in the industry have said a fillet is much harder to create outside the bird. For now, like others in the nascent industry, the start-up is focused on minced chicken. It is aiming to sell to meat companies that often reprocess chicken anyway, for example, into patties and nuggets. The report notes that SuperMeat cannot charge customers since there is no regulation around cultured meat in Israel. Those who try the product must also sign a waiver agreeing to "voluntarily assume any and all risks."
The industry is still very much in its infancy, but it was given a significant boost this week when Singapore became the first state to approve the sale of cultured meat.
At the Chicken, bottles of red wine line the walls, black stools surround circular tables, and the warm glow of hanging bulbs lights the restaurant. The entire back wall is made of glass. Behind it is the production facility where lab-coated scientists wander around between large metal vats. It is petri-dish-to-table service. "The meat was made on the other side of the glass. That's true local production of meat," jokes Ido Savir, CEO of the restaurant's parent company, SuperMeat. The breaded patty is deep-fried in oil, before being placed on a sweet brioche bun, flavored by wasabi and chilli mayonnaise, with a side of sweet potato chips. Similar to many chicken burgers, it breaks and flakes when pulled apart and is extremely tender. It tastes, at least to this reporter, like a chicken burger.
Halevy, who also holds the role of head of product at SuperMeat, explains that muscle cells naturally contract when they are grown, making the fibers that result in the flakes of the burger that you would expect. While Halevy says he could make a recreation of a chicken breast -- with longer fibers and a dryer, denser bite -- one was not offered, and others in the industry have said a fillet is much harder to create outside the bird. For now, like others in the nascent industry, the start-up is focused on minced chicken. It is aiming to sell to meat companies that often reprocess chicken anyway, for example, into patties and nuggets. The report notes that SuperMeat cannot charge customers since there is no regulation around cultured meat in Israel. Those who try the product must also sign a waiver agreeing to "voluntarily assume any and all risks."
The industry is still very much in its infancy, but it was given a significant boost this week when Singapore became the first state to approve the sale of cultured meat.
Of course they chose chicken. (Score:5, Funny)
Any protein you can't quite place "tastes like chicken".
Re: Of course they chose chicken. (Score:1)
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Have you not eat jackfruit based "meat"? It tastes exactly like chicken...
Mother Nature. She's one hell of a chef too.
What came first, chicken, or chicken flavor...
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Re:Of course they chose chicken. (Score:5, Informative)
Google "Ouroboros Steak ".
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Arthur C. Clarke came up with this one is his short story 'The Food of the Gods".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Any protein you can't quite place "tastes like chicken".
Actually, "chicken" is the taste of small terrestrial vertebrates, whether bird, mammal, reptile, or amphibian.
Larger animals, even birds like ostrich, taste more like beef or pork.
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rabbit and squirrel don't taste like chicken....
Both rabbit and squirrel are much closer to the taste of chicken than to any other meat that normal people eat.
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rabbit and squirrel don't taste like chicken....
Both rabbit and squirrel are much closer to the taste of chicken than to any other meat that normal people eat.
I've had rabbit and squirrel. Neither taste anything like chicken to me. Turkey, duck, goose, Cornish game hen, quail are all eaten by normal people and taste much much closer to chicken.
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Well, Bill did stipulate *terrestrial* animals. Alligators spend most of their life in the water, are tropical and cold blooded. It doesn't need to store the kind of fat that cattle do. Alligator meat has about 6% fat, which is roughly the same as dark turkey meat
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True. Gator jambalaya isn't bad. Rabbit, even professionally produced, boxed, and frozen like chicken, is gamey.
Re:Of course they chose chicken. (Score:5, Interesting)
I think a lot of the difference has to do with leanness. Much of the distinctive flavor of meat comes from fat soluble molecules. If you trim all the fat from a chicken breast, the remaining intramuscular fat is extremely low -- less than 0.5% by weight. What's left is the flavor of generic meat. Dark roasted chicken meat is about 9% fat by weight, and so has a more distinctive flavor.
Consumer concerns over fat has resulted in pork bred so lean it can be marketed as "the other white meat". Duck is much fatter than chicken, and so has a distinctive flavor. Duck is about 28% fat by weight; Rattlesnake is extremely lean, so it really is rather chicken-like. Rabbit is about 3% fat by weight, and so it's also kind of chicken-y.
Husbandry makes a difference too. Wild hog is musky because the scent glands have not been removed, and perhaps for that reason the meat flavor is intensely swine-y. Wild duck is more intensely flavored than domestic duck, despite being very lean. The breast has such a high iron content it tastes like liver. The drumsticks are almost indescribably sweet and succulent. I suspect the fat content in the legs may be high.
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Nonsense, you would only say that if you've never eaten anything that didn't come from a supermarket. Snake tastes nothing like frog which tastes nothing like quail which is nothing like pheasant which is nothing like squirrel. Squirrel is kind of like guinea pig but both are different than rabbit
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To be fair, there are already a couple of beef burger replacements out there, just made from plants and not grown from cells. Maybe better to go where there is less competition (for now).
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The headline reads like a Chubbyemu video.
A man eats a lab-grown chicken burger. This is what happened to his brain.
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The machines could not figure out what to make chicken taste like, which is why chicken tastes like everything.
Why not just stop eating chicken?! (Score:1)
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The price point can't be determined because it's currently unregulated food.
Re: Why not just stop eating chicken?! (Score:1)
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Re: Why not just stop eating chicken?! (Score:1)
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Plant based foods are much cheaper, ecologically speaking...
Citation needed. Chicken are pretty efficient at converting feed to meat (and eggs).
FTA:
"Critically, one study [sciencedaily.com] suggested it could potentially be produced with 96% lower greenhouse gas emissions and 99% less land – although some animal rights activists argue it perpetuates an unhealthy obsession with eating animals."
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Pretty efficient by vertebrate standards, but I think even chicken is generally something like a 3:1 feed:meat ratio.
But that's when growing a whole chicken, including lots of bones, feathers, organs, etc.
Lab-cultured chicken muscle is potentially far more efficient again.
Probably still have a hard time competing with locust's 10:9 ratio, especially considering that you can feed locusts unprocessed agricultural waste. But Westerners are far more accustomed to chicken.
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Probably still have a hard time competing with locust's 10:9 ratio, especially considering that you can feed locusts unprocessed agricultural waste. But Westerners are far more accustomed to chicken.
That’s just last millennium talk. Listen, if we can cross the genes of algae and goldfish to make them glow... Whose to judge if that female mantis someday thinks a rooster is super sexy and has a little fun fun time high on crispr to satiate those lower hungers? If you know what I mean.
The obvious outcome is the best of all worlds, what could possibly go wrong?
Re: Why not just stop eating chicken?! (Score:5, Insightful)
I find it amusing that 20 years ago we obsessed over getting away from processed foods. But now we're gushing praise for what amounts to highly processed plants and lab grown cultures. This isn't stuff we can make at home, we can only buy it from someone setup with the right equipment and processes in order to make it.
Re: Why not just stop eating chicken?! (Score:1)
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I dunno. Wheat flower bleached for whiteness, turning it into a simpler carbohydrate, and thus digested much more quickly, leading to a larger glucose spike, damaging fine blood vessels.
Re: Why not just stop eating chicken?! (Score:1)
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Something about flowers apparently. We should probably get a botanist's opinion on what chicken is.
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You could always grow your own locust-burgers, those are potentially even more efficient, as well as healthier than vertebrate meat. But Western markets have thus far not responded well to insect-based protein.
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You could always grow your own locust-burgers, those are potentially even more efficient, as well as healthier than vertebrate meat. But Western markets have thus far not responded well to insect-based protein.
Whole Foods carries cricket protein bars. Now look closely at some of tne new products on your supermarket's chips and snacks aisle. Surprise!
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I'll grant you that it's slowly getting better - especially as an "invisible" ingredient. But I suspect we're still a long way away from openly insect-based entrees selling as well as, say, frozen chicken nuggets.
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I suppose it might effect things a bit if people most people knew where their food dyes came from. Of course most people's reactions to "you've been eating ground up bugs your whole life and didn't know it" seem to usually not be changing their attitude towards eating bugs and embracing it. Instead they usually just get disgusted and swear they will never eat X again. Of course, after a while it turns out they will eat X, they just want to cover their ears and sing LA LA LA! So... I think that's a win for s
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Citation needed. Chicken are pretty efficient at converting feed to meat (and eggs).
Indeed. No one has read Diet For A Small Planet? Diet For A New America? Is the difference of price point per pound between an animal the size of a cow that drinks how much water? With a life cycle by what order of magnitude from a bird's? Reflected in their maintenance costs to bring to market? Demand is near equal, and any difference is a steady base-line. What are the ecological costs (externality) to have been subsidized since burgers and steak became the apex of American food habits and expectations?
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Burger King is currently charging the same price for the plant-based and meat-based Whoppers at the moment.
Re: Why not just stop eating chicken?! (Score:1)
suspicious qualifiers affixed (Score:2)
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Of course. In earlier labs, there are pillars of meat with random chicken heads and feathers sprouting from it, all the while crowing "kill me".
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They've been quiet for awhile, but some militant vegetarians argue the process of eating meat itself breeds support for animal abuse.
Expect them to come out of the woodwork more and more as lab-grown meat takes hold. Assuming it ever does compete in cost vs. farms. And fats make it taste good, so that has to be added somehow.
They bark up the wrong tree.
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So, there's lab grown chicken that is killed?
Well, it sounds like they're also harvesting source meat from eggs, so as long as you're cool with unborn fetus meat.
I was wondering about that. It doesn't specify if the cells were from fertilized or unfertilized eggs.
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I really hope that when they cook the lab grown chicken it dies. If it doesn't, I am not going to eat it.
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I really hope that when they cook the lab grown chicken it dies. If it doesn't, I am not going to eat it.
There are some folks who will only eat stuff if it is still alive:
Ikizukuri (), also known as ikezukuri (), (roughly translated as "prepared alive"[1]) is the preparing of sashimi (raw fish) from live seafood.
The restaurant may have one or several tanks of live sea animals for a customer to choose from. There are different styles in which a chef may serve the dish but the most common way is to serve it on a plate with the filleted meat assembled on top of the body.
Ikizukuri fish may be prepared with only three knife cuts by the chef. They are usually presented with the head still whole so that customers are able to see the continuing gill movements.
Ikizukuri [wikipedia.org]
Hey, if parts of it are still wiggling, you know it is fresh.
Try inviting some PETA folks out for this . . .
I would eat this (Score:2)
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You'll find out after you've eaten it. And signed the waiver.
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What's the downside?
For early adopters, the downside is the price.
It will be a while before this stuff is cheaper than real chicken.
But once it reaches price parity, sure, I'll eat it. Why not?
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It will be a while before this stuff is cheaper than real chicken.
Maybe never. The growth medium needed to produce such meat may require intensive processing. Lots of expensive nutrients plus highly controlled (i.e energy intensive) environments. Meanwhile live chickens can be grown from ... chicken feed. Chickens have been engineered over millions of years to take widely varying food inputs as well as automatically maintain an optimal growth environment to produce chicken meat.
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And real chickens have chicken fat to help the flavor.
Oh, they breadded and added herbs or whatever. At this point, it's more like a baked potato, something to chew on while you enjoy butter, salt, sour cream, and maybe some chives.
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That's why they're selling to the nugget factories, if it had the same texture they would sell it as meat.
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I guess it's no worse (Score:2)
Than hearing the yummy sounding phrase of "mechanically seperated and processed chicken".
As long as people don't mutate into zombies after eating from there, I don't see the problem.
That's "A" PHd. A A A A A PhD. (Score:2)
The "A" is in 40-point type in the ARTICLE YOU LINK TO.
Editors: EDIT !
The right timeline (Score:3)
Sorry, just new at this time travel crap (which is why I’m posting from 2020) and have been advised to stay well away from that one.
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a key ingredient of the proprietary fluid they grow the cells in is actually actual chicken scraps?
Relax:
a key ingredient of the proprietary fluid they grow the cells in is actually actual Soylent Green
Sidestepping the problem? (Score:2)
I've always heard that one of the trickier technical problems with artificial production of meat is getting the texture and flavor of an unadulterated piece of meat correct. If they're aiming for a heavily seasoned 'minced meat' product, that ignores the entire issue and sounds like something that could readily have been produced a decade or two back.
Having said that... sure, why not? Based on the description, it should come out to be basically the same thing as a fast food chicken nugget. As long as the wa
Tastes like chicken? (Score:2)
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"breaded patty is deep-fried in oil, before being placed on a sweet brioche bun, flavored by wasabi and chilli mayonnaise"
I'll bet the flavour of the "chicken" really comes through that.
Ah well, cheap protein in space is what it is.
I was thinking the same thing. Nothing like covering up the flavor with sauces and deep frying for a true taste test.
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Try plain this vs. plain real chicken. Wonder why you were ever born in either case.
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First No-Kill (Score:2)
Kill me first!
Tastes like ... (Score:2)
From Better Off Ted [wikipedia.org], Season 1, Episode 2: "Heroes" [fandom.com] -- Tastes like ... [youtube.com]
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While S2 was a little flat compared to S1 this show was canceled WAY too early.
I know, right? I have both seasons on DVD. One of my favorite lines from S1 is:
"‘Money before people.' That’s the company motto - engraved right there on the lobby floor. It just looks more heroic in Latin."
-- Veronica Palmer (Portia de Rossi), “Racial Sensitivity,” Better Off Ted: S1, Ep4
So true ...
World's first lab-grown no-kill ninja (Score:2)
Boring as f***-all, and sat down next to me to watch TV. Watched me munching on popcorn, and asked, "Got any nachos?"
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I'll bet this chicken is delicious in short strips mixed with chili and cumin powder and salt, on top of a pile of doritos with melted cheese, onions, tomato chunks, jalapenos, sour cream, cilantro, and a hot sauce.
Mmm...chicken.
Forget chicken, how about dinosaurs? Or Moa? (Score:2)
So, instead of chicken, how about a Moa burger?
I wonder what a Brontosaurus burger tastes like. Or for the more adventurous, a T-Rex burger!
Can we sequence enough dinosaur DNA to bring them to our dinning table?
Of course it would be highly disappointing
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You'll probably be disappointed, because dinosaurs will likely taste more like birds than any other meat.
While I haven't eaten any reptiles yet myself to confirm this have some people said these taste like chicken or close to it. And when you consider that birds are descendants of the dinosaurs then it makes somewhat sense, too.
So personally do I imagine dinosaur could have a taste like anything from chicken to turkey, goose and duck, but with an even wider range of flavours and textures. There were quite m
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Of course, it actually might be cheaper to bring the whole beasties back to life, then harvest them for their meat. That way you can checkout different cuts of meat. Like a chicken leg is different from wing or breast. Or see if young dinos are better tasting than adults.
So, let's have a Jurassic park!
Thin the herd as meat is needed. (I'd guess some of the larger ones would take a while to butcher, package and ship out.)
Hunters
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When I first read this, I thought of a line from a Larry Niven book, I think "The Ringworld Engineers", but could have been "Ringworld". The Kzin Chmeee commented on the food replicator's Moa leg and asked Louis if a Moa was a real animal. Or made up.
So, instead of chicken, how about a Moa burger?
I wonder what a Brontosaurus burger tastes like. Or for the more adventurous, a T-Rex burger!
You went all that way and didn't suggest a whitefood (aka Frumious Bandersnatch) burger?
"Black stools"? (Score:2)
Yeah, um, lost me right there, bub.
Chicken is ok... (Score:2)
And (Score:2)
Had diarrhea for days?
No thanks. (Score:2)
While some may find the idea of "kill-free" lab-grown meat that never scratched around in the dirt to eat and was only really alive in an academic sense appealing, I do not. I find it ironic that many of the people who applaud this sort of innovation are the same ones who insist on consuming only organic fruit and vegetables. For me, the best food does not come from a factory or a genetics laboratory. It comes from the earth, and it is best if I am the one who harvests it. I find the idea of a dystopian
Re:No thanks. (Score:4, Insightful)
but if the lab grown meat is fed only natural things and nothing artificial... it's also "organically grown". Most people don't have the land area to grow food, and that percentage will increase until world population peaks about 2075 or earlier.
I'm a meat eater, but if this cultured stuff tastes good and has the nutrients, why not? I'm thinking the famous marbled fat beef steaks that costs a mint from Japan could be $2 a lbs! aw yeah!
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I find it ironic that many of the people who applaud this sort of innovation are the same ones who insist on consuming only organic fruit and vegetables.
From what I've seen the two groups are poles apart. Although lab-grown meat is kill-free, I'm sure it's not vegan, because "processed." The definition is inherently religious.
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I find the idea of a dystopian world where we all are eating synthetic protein slurpees repellent and i will resist it any way I can.
All very well and good to say, but the vast majority of the human population does not own enough land (if they own any at all) to farm on. Your complaint is, ironically, a privileged first-world problem. Also, if you do own your own land and grow your own food, I'm not sure what you have to worry about for yourself personally.
Humans are DESIGNED to eat meat. (Score:2)
I'm uninterested in synthetic food.
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All the food you eat is synthetic, unless you eat exclusively seaweed and fish... but then you'd have heavy metal poisoning.
If you eat animals, those animals eat plants. Most plants depend on nitrogen compounds in the soil in order to grow. Few plants are able to 'fix' nitrogen from the air into nitrogen rich compounds, which is why crop rotation was so important in the olden days (about 100 years ago). Agriculture used to depend upon the natural nitrogen cycle in order to replenish nitrogen compounds in
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So you're saying we can just inhale nitrogen, swallow diamonds and water will do the rest. Good luck with that.
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Because a plant cobbles together minerals and carbon into something an animal (humans) can take nutrition from, you're calling an apple or broccoli synthetic?
That's an asinine definition. I'm not sure who would possibly be convinced by that?
It seems that people who are *absolutely convinced* they're smarter than everyone in the room believes semantic games are persuasive.
Yes, the rest of us know that "synthesis" is simply the putting together of two things, generally chemically. But the other 7.499 billio
Little did we know... (Score:2)
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"What we got back didn't live long... Fortunately."
Animal rights (Score:2)
Animal rights activists claim that we humans are no better than other animals, and that it is therefore immoral to eat them.
Yet, animals have been eating animals for as long as there have been animals. It's part of the balance of nature. Why should humans alone be barred from eating the meat of other animals? Singling out humans in this way is an admission that humans are unique.
Are humans just another animal? Then, when we eat other animals, we behave like other carnivores have always behaved.
Are humans un
The more ethical choice (Score:2)
Seems to be that lab growth "meat" products are far more ethical than traditional meat production. Both in terms of animal welfare, for those who care about such things, and ecologically.
By many estimates, livestock production accounts for upwards of 14% of greenhouse gas production. Not to mention the environmental contamination which result from spillage at waste storage sites.
Then there is the vast amounts of land required to raise the animals which could be used for other things.
Then there is the fact t
Bullshit no-kill (Score:2)
Lots and lots of rotifers, tardigrades and nematodes (all in the animal kingdom) died for it. Let alone plants tha got mutilted into nasty white powders with the health properties of salted caramel cream cake.
Oh wait, they are not cute and cuddly! Can't jerk tears of never-seen-nature city dwellers with them! Nevermind then ... --.--
Just use a freaking condom. There. Meat factories unnecessary, problems gone. Until you get a ... cat.
Re: Bullshit no-kill (Score:2)
s/tha got mutilited/that got mutilated/
Damn. Makes me sound like a hoodlum.
Prions (Score:2)
Is it really a good idea? (Score:2)
I love pork ribs, beef ribs, chicken wings, chicken legs and I could go on with t-bone steak and what not. I love to bite, to pull and to suck the meat of a piece of bone. I like it when the fingers get greasy, when I'm finished with a bone just so I can toss it, when I nibble on a ligament or some other stringy part that makes me work for it. It's just awesome. Point is, it isn't simply about the meat, the proteins or the taste. It's about the entire experience of eating an animal.
Producing artificial meat
Sooo, the chicken's still alive? (Score:2)
It's sushi grade then!
International Laws Needed On Naming These Products (Score:1)
Do you really want to give contro