Lab-Grown Meats (yes, they do have benefits!)

Lab-grown meats do sound a bit Frankenstein, but when done well, they are actually pretty good. A way for people who won’t give up eating meat to eat it, without harm to animals, and it’s also free from pathogens, blood, poop, feathers, bones and other things you don’t want.

Redefine Meat has been making waves, as unlike most lab meats (that uses a few animal cells), this is made with plant ingredients, to create a ‘meat’ that looks, tastes and carves like the real thing.

Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (these ‘meats’ may contain pet-toxic ingredients like onion, garlic and salt).

Most lab-grown meats take a few cells from a living animal (not in a lab, Dawn the pig in the USA had one sample culture taken, and while she roams free in an animal sanctuary, her cultures were ‘fattened’ and now creates Mission Barns ‘pig meat’.

The ‘meat’ is then  grown in a test tube, a bit like how yoghurt is made. Replacing real meat not only stops factory farms (England has 60 million people, so there is not enough land for everyone to eat free-range) but also reduces massive greenhouse gas, water and energy emissions.

One company in Israel is presently undergoing Kosher certification, showing that lab-grown meats are also an ideal alternative to religious slaughter (no stunning) – though it’s perfectly okay for Jews and Muslims to be vegan, and still follow the rules of their faith. 

Tuna (made from fish cells)

BlueNalu is doing the same, but this time for seafood to prevent over-fishing and by-catch of dolphins, seals, whales, sea turtles and sharks (often caught in nets). Tuna is presently one of the most endangered fish, and this company has created a lab-made alternative, by taking cells from one fish.

Aussie lab-grown meat (kangaroo-friendly)

Vow (Australia) calls itself the ‘spaceship of the cultured meat industry’. Already fine-dining restaurants are serving its meat, with its first brand Forged by Vow sold directly to consumers. Its products include cultures to make kangaroo, water buffalo and alpaca meats

Plus Forged Gras (a quail-version of foie gras, made usually by force-feeding ducks and geese, until their pates turn to liver).

Complete Protein (made from air!)

Air Protein grows in hours (compared to 2 years for beef or 1 year for soy). This company whisks together the ‘elements of air’ with cultures in the same way that cheese and wine is made. Water is then removed to make a flour, that can be used to make the base of many protein foods, without animals.

This company was created by two doctors (who specialise in physics and biology), who rediscovered the way that astronauts were fed in space, during a 1970s space program. This protein needs no arable land, and contains all amino acid proteins.

Meat (made from Fungi!)

The Better Meat Co is different in that it’s a complete protein meat alternative, but made from rhiza mycoprotein (the root system of fungi). It’s the only mycroprotein ingredient deemed by USDA as suitable for inclusion in animal meat, with more protein than eggs, more iron and zinc than beef, more fibre than oats and more potassium than bananas.

This company turns it into burgers, steak, chicken, crab, fish, deli slices, hot dogs, foie gras, bacon, meatballs, taco meat and jerky.

It’s made by fermenting potatoes, rice and corn, to create a high protein food within hours, that has the natural texture of animal meat. It’s not mushrooms, as most fungi are not mushrooms. It’s basically feeding starchy foods to microscopic fungi.

Using Lab-Grown Meats for Pet Food

One way that lab-grown meats are helping, is to replace factory-farmed meats in cheap pet food, to provide ‘real meat’ for animals that need it (say cats, who are obligate carnivores). And if you run a sanctuary for lions rescued from zoos, they are not going to be happy (or healthy) if you feed them tofu burgers!

Meatly has produced the first ‘chicken’ for the commercial pet food industry, by taking cells from one single chicken egg, then growing them in a lab, to help save the 50 billion real chickens are slaughtered each year, for the meat industry.

BioCraft is another company doing the same, founded by a biochemist who studied at Stanford University. They have created ‘real meat, but it’s not made the mean old way’. Instead, it’s grown from animal cells, to grow cruelty-free ‘chicken, rabbit and mouse meat!’