Biologist Philip Haytovich talks about how safe laboratory meat is
Three years ago in London, the world's first hamburger was prepared in front of a large crowd of television cameras, which contained a 140-gram cutlet from cultured meat grown in a test tube. Nutritionist Hanni Rutzer found the meat to be slightly dry and lean. Since then, experts have predicted an imminent boom in this kind of products. We recently wrote about one such project.
How realistic is the idea to establish such production on an industrial scale? We decided to ask biologist Philip Khaitovich, professor at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech).
- In Russia, this is not necessary …
Why in Russia?
- Because traditional meat production needs a lot of water for livestock. Water shortage is actually a serious global problem, but our country, fortunately, does not experience such a shortage. But in other countries, for example in the Middle East, there are reasons for creating factories for the production of "meat in a test tube". Perhaps the Japanese will follow this scenario, when all the fish in the area are caught.
- How safe is such meat? Horns won't grow if you lean on it?
“The horns certainly won't grow. But one must understand that this meat will differ from the usual one in a number of characteristics. After all, the cellular material must be placed in a special artificial nutrient medium so that the cells can grow. The effects of such meat on the human body have not yet been studied.
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Neurobiologist Philip Haytovich
What could be the catch?
- Our body is a complex biological system, where the human body is adjacent to a large number of bacteria that live in the gastrointestinal tract and help us to absorb food. This is the community - we and bacteria are accustomed to a certain type of food. If we start eating a product that in a number of positions will differ from the usual food, an imbalance and inflammatory processes may occur. Remember how much noise there was over GMO foods? Although only one gene of another wild-growing plant is added there and for our body this absolutely did not play any role. So, creating "meat from a test tube" we interfere with nature much more than with GMO products. Maybe everything will be fine, but it is possible that side effects will arise. Long-term observations are needed.
We are promised artificial chicken at $ 5 per kilogram. But now the meat that is grown in laboratories costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per kilo …
- This is normal. When industrial production starts, a scaling effect occurs and prices fall many times. But then another question arises. To ensure industrial production volumes, various substrates will have to be used in order for the cells to grow faster. It is difficult to say how this will affect the quality of the meat.
Yaroslav KOROBATOV