The $325,000 Hamburger — No Kidding

Posted By Raquel Cool in Eat, Science

BreakingModern — A hamburger made from lab grown cow muscle might become commercially viable in the next decade. In a strange display of the scientific possibilities of food, the lab-grown hamburger was prepared, cooked and taste-tested before a London audience last year.

Here are five facts you need to know about the world’s first stem cell burger.

1. The burger is made from stem cells cultured in a petri dish. Mmm, in vitro meat.

The high tech cow fiber was developed using stem cells that were harvested from a cut of cow shoulder meat, in the laboratory of Dr. Mark Post, a vascular biologist at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands.

The technology required to make this $325,000 hamburger would make the most advanced molecular gastronomists break into a cold sweat.

These stem cells — the basic cells with the potential to develop into different cell types — became muscle cells, which were placed in a petri dish, then doused in a nutrient-rich solution that made them grow into razor-thin strips of muscle tissue.

These meat tissues were combined — about 20,000 in all — to create a mass that weighed about five ounces, according to The New York Times. Red beet juice and saffron were added to give it color.

2. Lab grown meat tastes like meat. Mostly. Sort of.

One problem: The ultra-lean burger had zero fat. Though English chef Richard McGeown flavored the muscular vitro patty with breadcrumbs, salt and copious amounts of butter, the final product still felt like something essential was missing from the lean patty. Something unctuous.

“There is a leanness to it,” Chicago-based food writer Josh Schonwald told NBC News. “The absence of fat is what makes it taste different … I would say it is somewhere on the spectrum between a Boca Burger [soy burger brand] and McDonald’s. The absence of fat makes a big difference. It has the texture, which I was not expecting. It was like an animal-protein cake.”

3. Eighty percent of Americans would not even try it.

Of course, not everyone is thrilled by the prospect of eating meat grown in a petri dish. And descriptors like “animal protein cake” won’t exactly get prospective customers elbowing each other out of the way for a taste.

According to a 2014 Pew Research Center survey, 80 percent of Americans would be unwilling to try meat grown in a laboratory. The survey also found that younger, college-educated people would be more willing to give it a go.

Indeed, the five-ounce “Frankenburger” is certainly divisive. Others warn against the understudied health risks that may result from consuming experimental meat not yet approved for human consumption.

Not that the current state of low-grade industrial cow meat is superior, by any means. I wonder how many of those polled would unwittingly — or uncaringly — eat the infamous pink sludge that pervades modern fast food meat. Hamburger chef and food activist Jamie Oliver famously broke down the “pink sludge process”: scraps of tendon and meat bits that were previously considered inedible are inserted into a centrifuge, to separate the chewy bits from the bony bits. The resulting meat product is then disinfected with ammonia. Tasty.

4. Biotech’s take on the future of food could reduce environmental impact.

The detrimental impact of the meat industry on the environment is well known: The meat industry contributes about 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2006 environmental report by The Livestock, Environment, and Development (LEAD) initiative.

And it’s only growing.

The Dutch scientist says that his aim was to reduce the environmental impact of the future of meat consumption. “Current meat production is at its maximum — we need to come up with an alternative,” Dr. Post told Reuters.

5. You might see lab-grown meat in stores in 10 to 20 years.

The future of food may arrive sooner than you think. Dr. Post is optimistic about the commercial viability of cultured meat. He estimates that it will take at least 10 years before it hits stores.

The estimated price of cultured meat is $30 a pound, but this exorbitant cost could be reduced through a larger scale production. Kind of like the human-baby-as-a-battery-power-source scene in the Matrix, but less dramatic, and perhaps less dystopian.

For BMod, I’m Raquel Cool.

First Image/Featured: “Big Burger” by powerplantop via Flickr Creative Commons

Second Image: “Untitled” by Danielle Scott via Flickr Creative Commons

Third Image: “Tank, I Need a Burger” by darthdowney via Flickr Creative Commons

Header Image: By Carlos Lopez from hermosillo, Mexico (gamenight) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons