Are YOU ready to eat a lab-grown steak? Israeli firm applies for permit to serve meat from a petri dish to diners
- Aleph Farms believed to be first to apply for go-ahead to serve lab-grown meat
- It takes 4 weeks to grow cuts and they expect to grow thousands of tons of beef
Steaks from laboratories could be heading on to restaurant menus.
Israeli firm Aleph Farms is believed to have become the first to apply to the Food Standards Agency for the go-ahead to serve up lab-grown cuts to diners.
Lab-grown meat is still unavailable in the UK but it is expected to make up a quarter of global meat consumption by 2035.
The production process requires a one-time collection of a cow’s fertilised eggs to grow what are claimed to be ‘high-quality, tasty, and nutritious’ steaks.
Growing the cuts takes around four weeks and, once at scale, the firm expects to grow thousands of tons of beef from the single collection of cells.
Israeli firm Aleph Farms is believed to have become the first to apply to the Food Standards Agency for the go-ahead to serve up lab-grown cuts to diners (stock image)
Didier Toubia, chief executive of Aleph Farms, said: ‘We believe the UK will take a couple of years, but the potential is huge.’
He said the company is planning to begin production in the UK in the next few years and is in talks with potential commercial partners.
The firm applied to the FSA on July 21 – shortly after it also submitted a similar application in Switzerland, the first such filing in Europe.
Researchers have revealed that lab-grown or ‘cultured’ meat, produced by cultivating animal cells, is up to 25 times worse for the climate than real beef.
Production of real meat has a huge carbon footprint because it requires water, feed and the clearing of trees to make way for cattle.
Despite this, experts say the carbon footprint of lab-grown meat could be ‘orders of magnitude higher’ once the industry grows.
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