Lab-Grown Coffee: How Authentic is the Taste, Smell of This Genetically Engineered Brew?

Scientists have recently developed a pioneering lab-grown, genetically engineered that tastes and smells like real coffee.

A Mail Online report said, Finland-based researchers used a process known as "cellular agriculture," involving the extraction of cells from a tiny sample of animal or plant.

This said method has already been employed for the creation of milk and meat. In addition, in the most recent example of lab-grown substitutes, cell samples were taken from a popular coffee plant, Arabica, as explained in Springer, which accounts for more than 50 percent of worldwide production.

Additionally, cell samples were then transferred to bioreactors for the production of biomass, which was collected for brewing and roasting.

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Lab-Grown Coffee

Using lab-grown coffee, the study authors claimed they can tackle sustainability problems that face the global coffee business, such as a need to clear space for coffee plants, to keep up with a ravenous demand for the drink globally.

The study is being carried out at VTT Technical Research Center, based in Espoo, Finland, the country with people who drink the most coffee per capita.

According to the head of plant biotechnology at the VTT research institute of Finland, Dr. Heiko Rischer, the process is using real coffee plant cells.

At first, he added, cell culture is started from a part of a plant, like a leaf, for one. The shaped cells are circulated and multiplied on a certain nutrient medium.

Eventually, continued the official, the cells are transferred to a bioreactor from which the biomass is then, collected. Such cells are dried and roasted, and then, coffee can be brewed.

Authentic Smell and Taste

The first batches that the VTT produced in their lab smell and test lake the traditional or standard coffee, results of a sensory analysis showed.

Dr. Rischer explained, after drinking a cup of coffee, "there's a surprisingly full aroma." When it comes to taste and smell, he added, one's trained sensory panel and analytical investigation found the brew's profile to bear resemblance to ordinary coffee.

Describing the experience of drinking the very first cup of the lab-grown latte, Rischer said, was exciting. The production process of VTT is grounded on existing and established technology like the conventional bioreactors' operation.

Furthermore, the notion that coffee cells could be employed to make coffee was presented back in the early 1970s by PM Townsley, a plant scientist.

To Hit the Market by 2025

The VTT researchers have put the theory into practice though, with their lab-grown coffee, which they think could hit the market could hit the market, approximately four years from now or by 2025.

Dr. Rischer explained, he estimates they are only a few years away from ramping up production and having the approval of the regulatory in place.

Essentially, the approval, as well as the introduction to the market are considered as a "track race" before lab-grown coffee can turn into a commercial product, added Rischer.

At present, all coffee materials made in the lab conditions is representing experimental food and would need regulatory approval by the Food and Drug Administration to be promoted and sold to the consumers in the United States.

In Europe, in particular, the lab-grown coffee needs to be approved first as "Novel Food," before it can be marketed and sold. Lab-grown coffee can help make coffee production more sustainable, preventing problems like deforestation.

Because of the high demand for coffee all over the world, there's a need for more land to produce sufficient coffee beans resulted in deforestation, specifically in sensitive rainforest sites, a New Atlas report specified.

Related information about growing Arabica coffee plant is shown on Katsiaryna Terehova's YouTube video below: