Researchers have known how to artificially produce meat in the laboratory since 2013.
But the so-called in-vitro meat has not yet made it into the supermarkets.
Munich - Meat production is responsible for 14.5 percent of all greenhouse gases.
In Germany alone, 763 million animals are slaughtered every year.
100 million of them end up in the garbage can because consumers buy too much and fail to consume the goods in time before the expiry date.
Researchers presented the first burger made with laboratory meat back in 2013, funded by Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google.
Large corporations like Merck or Néstle invest millions in innovation.
But so far the artificially bred meat has not yet made it into the supermarkets.
Why actually?
Meat from the laboratory: how does it actually work?
“We should say goodbye to the absurdity of raising a whole chicken just to eat its breast or wings. Instead, we should grow the pieces individually, in a suitable medium. ”In 1931, Winston Churchill, who later became Prime Minister of Great Britain, published
this future scenario in
The Strand Magazine
. Almost a hundred years later, research has taken a step further, but artificial meat is still not on supermarket shelves. Researchers already know how to do it:
Meat is mainly made up of muscle mass. Researchers extract stem cells for artificial meat production. These muscle cells form the cell lines and are then multiplied. The cells multiply in incubators, where they lie in a solution that contains sugar, fat, minerals and other nutrients - just like in the blood. A revolution, because manufacturers initially resorted to calf serum. But Aleph Farms from Israel, for example, can already do without serum.
It is difficult to assemble the cells into a three-dimensional structure.
In the body, bones help stabilize it.
A similar structure in artificial meat would have to be food-safe so that it does not have to be removed before consumption.
Minced meat is easier to make, but steak is very difficult.
Artificial fat and connective tissue are also a challenge; these are important for the taste.
The artificial muscle cells also lack the training of muscle mass like in the real body.
The experts are also still working on a suitable transport of the nutrients into the interior of the cell cluster; this function is performed by the blood vessels in real animals.
In-vitro meat: a real alternative for the future?
The inventor of the first in vitro burger Dr. Mark Post points out that current meat production has reached a maximum. Conventional production cannot meet the demand for meat in the next few years - from his point of view, laboratory meat could be an environmentally friendly solution. The Israeli in-vitro producer Supermeat also sees it this way: "We have a cell line that forms the basis for practically all of our products," said Supermeat founder Ido Savir to
ARD
. "One chicken could feed the world."
The
Guardian
reports that artificial chicken was approved for sale in Singapore by the local food authority in late 2020. It is the product "Chicken Bites" from the manufacturer Eat Just. A milestone in the in-vitro meat industry. It is currently unclear until when manufacturers in the European Union will launch a product suitable for the masses.
Experts such as Thomas Herget, Head of Merck's Innovation Hubs in California and China, estimate that only a third of meat will come from real animals in the future. A third of the rest will be based on plant-based alternatives and cultivations from the laboratory - without animal suffering.
AT Kearney
predicts that by 2040, most of the meat on the market will not come from real animals. Laboratory meat will only become a mass product if it can keep up with real meat in terms of price. The first burger in 2013 is said to
have cost 300,000 US dollars, according to
Quarks
, but a burger patty could now cost around twelve to 14 US dollars - and the trend is falling.
What consequences would meat from the Petri dish have on the environment?
Animal rights activists see the development as positive: "In principle, it is to be welcomed if no animals have to die for meat and if environmental damage is limited," says Stephanie Töwe, an agricultural expert at Greenpeace.
Experts agree that laboratory meat can significantly reduce animal suffering.
How much greenhouse gases the laboratory production of meat could really save is still unclear.
According to
Quarks
,
an overview study from 2019
showed that in-vitro meat could generate roughly the same amount of greenhouse gases.
In terms of energy and water consumption, the laboratory product could do even worse than real meat.
Estimates by researchers at the University of Amsterdam and Oxford are more optimistic: Laboratory meat could reduce agricultural emissions by 78 to 96 percent compared to conventional meat, according to the results of their study,
according to
a report by
HNA
. Artificial production could also require 99 percent less space and 82 to 96 percent less water.
The pioneer Mark Post considers the production of a portion of laboratory meat to be more efficient than conventional meat production: "We only need two and a half times as much vegetarian input," says the pharmacologist.
In conventional production, a cattle eats around nine kilograms of feed per kilogram of meat.
But real statements about the use of resources can only be made if in-vitro meat goes into mass production, says cell biologist Kai Fiedler.
If you want to actively reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy and water consumption in the food industry, there is still a simpler alternative: switching to plant-based alternatives.
It's even good for the wallet.
