First Burger in the World Produced in a Laboratory

Could there be a solution for world hunger? As science progresses, options we aren’t too comfortable with keep popping up!

Wrap your mind around this! The first Burger in the world to have been produced in a lab, has been consumed. You may be questioning, what does that mean exactly? Let us explain…

The process behind cultured beef, is made from the muscle cells of a cow, which are placed in a nutrient solution that stimulates the muscle tissue to grow. The tissue is then gorwn by placing the cells in tubes around a gel hub. The cells then grow into small strands of meet; so that one burger needs approximately 20,000 strands to make about 5 ounces of lean beef!

So basically in the near future we’ll be eating burgers and steaks made to perfection in test tubes? We don’t know about you but this really rubs us the wrong way, the creepiness factor is way up there, although it does seem like a logical solution that can combat world hunger!

Currently, the team working on the cultured beef can only make small pieces of meat, as larger pieces require artificial circulatory systems to distribute nutrients and oxygen. As well, the cultured beef is not cheap; it costs in the neighborhood of $325,000 (US) to produce just one five-ounce burger.

Although researchers aren’t quite there yet, lab burgers and steaks may be coming to a plate near you in the not so far future!