Test-tube meat to be available this fall, scientist says

(Maastricht University)

The world's first "test-tube" meat will be made entirely from a cow's stem cells and will be produced this fall, the AFP reported Monday.

Lead researcher on the project, Dutch scientist Mark Post, told a major science conference Sunday that he aims to invent an efficient way to produce skeletal muscle in the lab that exactly mimics meat.

Post eventually wants to entirely replace the meat-animal industry.

While the method is “still in laboratory phase,” he said that this autumn, his team has “committed [themselves] to make a couple of thousands of small tissues, and then assemble them into a hamburger,” the AFP reported.

Post is the chair of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.  He said his project would not have been possible if it had not been for an anonymous donation of 250,000 euros from a private investor.

According to Post and the AFP, the investor was motivated by “care for the environment, food for the world and interest in life-transforming technologies.” 

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