Friday, 19 April 2024

'Meatable' and Mash?

The Dutch company, 'Meatable', are producers of 'ethical' meat. One of their recent products, is a sausage substitute made from textured pea; chickpea; soy and wheat protein, flavoured with laboratory-grown pig fat cells. Fat, rather than animal protein, gives 'bangers' most of their distinctive flavour. Stem cells are obtained from a fertilised pig ovum (egg). Genes are activated and deactivated in them, to produce fat cells. The Netherlands is the first European country approving tastings of this type of laboratory-derived 'meat' product (https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/apr/17/slaughter-free-sausages-trying-the-latest-lab-grown-meat-creation). Meatable's sausages are reportedly pretty convincing. Their production, however, is a million miles from processes on a typical pig farm. There's certainly much less animal suffering involved in their production. There's also much less production of 'greenhouse gases' and animal waste, than one gets from an intensive pig-rearing establishment. Whether, however, this production can be efficient enough and the 'bangers' cheap enough, remains to be seen. They are not, of course, strictly speaking, 'vegetarian'. Some folk might also be put off by the 'yuk factor'.

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