The companies selling these meat alternatives have some very
trendy arguments for why they are a good idea. They say these products can be
created with a smaller footprint, meat protein can be grown in an incubator
much faster than on the hoof, animals are not put down for the process, and
well, gosh golly darn it, we just have so many more people that need to be fed
nowadays.
I can see how these products could be considered useful in
some of those respects: For example, if you lived on a small island or perhaps
a space station, that all sounds good. However, lots of things look good on
paper until they hit the real world. You can find people who all thought Communism,
extended warranties and New Coke sounded good at one time or another — just saying.
To create 3D-printed meat, you start by removing stem cells
from an animal, placing them in a petri dish and putting them in an incubator
to replicate. Once enough cells are present, they are then made into a paste,
which is put into a printer cartridge then placed in the printer — much like a typical ink cartridge —
and printing begins.
The process of “printing meat” reminds me of cake decorating.
As a matter of fact, the process can create some interesting shapes, but so
far, I haven’t seen any that look like a chicken breast or steak. So, perfection/improvement
of appearance and texture are still on the drawing board. The first finished product
printed was a breaded chicken nugget. Did I fail to mention that Kentucky Fried
Chicken is championing this research? No word yet on whether Colonel Sanders is
rolling in his grave.
Anyhow, taste testers reported that it tasted just like a traditional
chicken nugget, but when cut open you could see that it was a mass of goo that
had bubbled during the cooking process. I do not think that alone would deter chicken
nugget fans though, because it really doesn’t look all that different from a cooked,
meat-taken-from-the-bird McDonald’s McNugget.
When it comes to beef, they would likely follow the same
process to make a paste and are working on a beef burger. As you might imagine,
the companies competing for this market share are very protective of their
processes, so I was unable to find footage on how they were trying to achieve
the coarse-ground look.
Naturally, printing burgers isn’t the only target for these
entrepreneurs. (Writer’s note: Naturally? Printing burgers? I’m not sure
those go together!) Some companies are
already growing steaks. At the point of this writing, it had been reported that
the cost of a piece of cultured steak the diameter of a credit card and about
twice as thick is around $60,000 — and doesn’t
feature the fibrous muscle tissue look of real steak. The ultimate goal would
be to produce Wagyu in a lab setting, which clearly is going to be a few years away.
None of these products are ready to hit the market yet, nor
are they approved for sale in the United States. On March 7, 2019, the USDA and
the FDA agreed to jointly share regulatory oversight of these products. Two
years later, the details are still being ironed out. What I do know is that my
own state, Missouri, passed a law saying that meat cannot be called meat unless
it comes from a traditionally raised animal. This gives me hope. What the
labels on these cultured-meat products will say in the future is anyone’s guess
at this point. My only concern is that it must be clear to the consumer.
This new technology could prove to be a challenge for the meat
industry, although I do not see that happening very soon. I also see that there
could come a time when traditionally raised meat is much more expensive and
sought after. Whatever happens, this is an issue to keep an eye on, and it is
important that each state get on the Missouri bandwagon and pass laws now that
require meat to be defined as traditionally raised.
— Martha Gore, food safety consultant, We
R Food Safety!
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