For people who like to eat meat, but do not prefer to eat meat because of their love for animals, or for those who avoid animal foods simply because it is healthier, artificial meat produced in a laboratory environment and claimed to contain no animal foods at all may sound like a great alternative. . However, the latest information shows that things are actually quite different from what is thought.
Targeting the conscience of animal lovers by saying that it does not contain any animal food, according to the latest research; Meat products produced in the laboratory contain shocking amounts of animal blood. To be more specific, it is stated that such products usually use fetal bovine serum (FBS) or blood obtained from unborn cow fetuses.
Artificial meats that are claimed to be produced without harming animals actually contain animal food and animal blood
Contain vital proteins needed to help animal cells grow and reproduce in vitro In terms of food, FBS opens up the potential to produce delicious meats in the lab without the need to slaughter animals. However, it is unknown whether FBS will be accepted by the entire target market for some reason.
This fact naturally presents several problems for lab-grown meat companies. Firstly, FBS entails the death of an animal in any way, which means that FBS is not very vegan friendly and therefore does not meet customer expectations.
The second problem is that FBS is an extremely expensive product. The fact that the price of FBS is over $1,000 per liter indicates that companies producing artificial meat using serum must sell these artificial meats for $200,000 just to compete with each other.
Companies are looking for an alternative to replace FBS
For these reasons, companies producing artificial meat are looking for a replacement for FBS to solve the problem. working on alternatives. However, it seems that this solution has some problems of its own.
Synthetic biologist Christina Agapakis, who works as the creative director at the biotechnology company Ginkgo Bioworks, stated that an entirely new supply chain should be created, adding, “To make this possible, many innovations will have to take place in the field of biological production.” saves as.
On the other hand, as meat consumption is one of the driving forces behind greenhouse gas emissions, a large majority believe that creating a commercially viable alternative to meat despite its high cost is crucial for the existential problems facing the world due to anthropogenic climate change.