New research shows that particular lab-grown meat does contain natural components extracted from living cows and might not be favorable as an alternative food, especially for vegetarians.
The latest study found that developing these specific lab-grown meats in tanks, which are assembled cell-by-cell, actually requires part of the blood of cows during slaughter.
Meat Alternatives and Fetal Bovine Serum
The meat alternative was initially praised by many, including the environmental and vegetarian advocates, as the products do not require any process like killing animals, wasting excessive waters, and emitting harmful levels of methane.
But in a recent report presented by Mother Jones, the near-utopian solution is not what people thought it was. Based on the recent examinations of the meat, it was discovered that formulating these food alternatives requires dripping blood from real cows in a slaughterhouse.
Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is the most popular and most-used approach to developing the supposedly ethical answer against the meat of real cows. However, the method could only run through an expensive amount of production.
According to a study, this particular tissue engineering costs at least $1,000 per liter. This requires every company that uses the technology to sell their culture meat at around $200,000 per pound to break even on their expenses.
Despite the issues faced by this industry, millions of dollars are being invested in the business by other enterprises and several famous personalities such as Robert Downet, Jr. and Leonardo DiCaprio, DailyMail reports.
Cow Fetus Blood for Lab-Grown Meat Food Unethical, Expensive, and Not for Vegetarians
Fetal bovine serum is a method that is not new in the scientific industry. Some food development facilities have been open to the public about their test-tube cells in forming their meat-based products.
The latest study on the specified meat alternative shows that the components used in developing the slabs are commonly found not in other cell cultures but from the blood of unborn cow fetuses.
This procedure is viewed as an ethical concern for experts, food developers, and even vegetarian groups. Due to the problems associated with fetal bovine serum, many deem that generating artificial meat foods through this technique may not pass the general criteria of ethical and viable alternatives today.
According to the reports, Singapore is the first and only country that is open lab-grown meat trade. But there are accounts that the few enterprises based on the region lose revenues instead of their expected profits.
However, the sales observed from these trades are only limited to ''product demos,' with the industrial-scale yet to operate.
The Good Food Institute explained that a formula similar but cheaper FBS exists. Although containing a comparable amount of nutrients and still costs $400 per liter, this compound does not need the fetal cells and slaughter to grow cultures.
A preprint of the study was published in the journal bioRxiv, titled "Techno-economic assessment of animal cell-based meat."
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