Meat grown in labs could hit the market this year
Excerpt:
EVANSVILLE, Ind., Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Meat that's been grown in a laboratory -- not raised in a farmyard -- might begin to appear on restaurant menus and at meat counters around the world in 2019.
"We hope to make our first sale this year," said Andrew Noyes, a spokesman for the company Just, based in San Francisco, which is developing a lab-grown chicken product. "We are creating real meat in our facility that doesn't require the capture or slaughter of animals."
Excerpt #2:
But as these companies vie for public attention -- and investment -- scientists urge caution. Little is known about the processes by which businesses are growing these meats -- because much of the science they're using is considered proprietary intellectual property.
That means that the sudden rush toward commercial production has left scientists, government agencies and the meat industry ill prepared to understand these new products -- or regulate them.
"Is it meat or is it not meat?" Dale Woerner, an associate professor of sustainable meat science at Texas Tech University, asked rhetorically. "The message I would give you is, we don't know.
Meat scientists around the country have tried to study these products, Woerner said. So far, they've been denied access.
"We are theorizing what it is and what it could be," he said. "But without a tangible, measurable product, there is no way for us to say whether it is or not. The consensus from the scientific community is we cannot make a determination without actually having the product to evaluate."
That also means that scientists don't know if the products are safe to eat.
Excerpt:
EVANSVILLE, Ind., Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Meat that's been grown in a laboratory -- not raised in a farmyard -- might begin to appear on restaurant menus and at meat counters around the world in 2019.
"We hope to make our first sale this year," said Andrew Noyes, a spokesman for the company Just, based in San Francisco, which is developing a lab-grown chicken product. "We are creating real meat in our facility that doesn't require the capture or slaughter of animals."
Excerpt #2:
But as these companies vie for public attention -- and investment -- scientists urge caution. Little is known about the processes by which businesses are growing these meats -- because much of the science they're using is considered proprietary intellectual property.
That means that the sudden rush toward commercial production has left scientists, government agencies and the meat industry ill prepared to understand these new products -- or regulate them.
"Is it meat or is it not meat?" Dale Woerner, an associate professor of sustainable meat science at Texas Tech University, asked rhetorically. "The message I would give you is, we don't know.
Meat scientists around the country have tried to study these products, Woerner said. So far, they've been denied access.
"We are theorizing what it is and what it could be," he said. "But without a tangible, measurable product, there is no way for us to say whether it is or not. The consensus from the scientific community is we cannot make a determination without actually having the product to evaluate."
That also means that scientists don't know if the products are safe to eat.
