First burgers grown in a lab dish to go on sale in 2021 in ‘clean meat’ revolution

Five years ago, a Dutch scientist showed off a burger grown from cow cells in a laboratory – and a brave volunteer ate it.

Within three years, productsf from the Dutch company Mosa Meat will go on sale: the first burgers ever made where no animal has been killed.

The Dutch company has received £6.7 million to pursue its plans to make and sell artificially grown meat to restaurants from 2021.

The aim is to achieve industrial-scale production two to three years later, with a typical hamburger costing about one dollar.

Environmentalists have warned that the world’s growing appetite for meat, particularly in emerging economies such as China, is not sustainable because beef, pork and poultry require far greater resources than plant-based proteins.

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Cows in particular also produce large amounts of greenhouse gas that contribute to global warming. The big challenge is making meat that looks, feels and tastes like the real thing. Mosa Meat uses a small sample of cells taken from a live animal. Those cells are fed with nutrients so that they grow into strands of muscle tissue.

The company claims it could make up to 80,000 quarter pounders from a single sample.

With a number of startups and established players hoping to make cultured meat on a big scale in the coming years, a battle has broken out over the terms used to describe such products.

Some advocates have claimed the term ‘clean meat’ while opponents in the traditional farm sector suggest ‘synthetic meat’ is more appropriate.