An artificial meatball has been created in the laboratory through the genetic use of an animal species extinct since the Ice Age, the woolly mammoth (Primal Mammuthus). Traces of these mammoths are regularly found buried in the Arctic ice, which allowed the scientists involved in the project to identify the DNA sequence of this animal through a genome database. The researchers filled in the gaps with information from the genome of an African elephant and using a protein found in mammals, myoglobin.
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This project was created by start up australian vote Is Those who think they can prove it are wrong. This initiative is not intended for human consumption, since researchers cannot predict the allergic potential of a protein that has not existed for more than five thousand years. According to CNN, the aim is to draw attention to the potential of meat produced in a laboratory, to make food more ecological and, at the same time, bring to the public debate the use of high technology for food production.
“We need to start rethinking how we source our food. My biggest hope for this project is that more people around the world start hearing about artificial meat,” said James Ryall, Vow’s chief scientific officer., quoted by CNN.
In the world there are more than a hundred companies working on meat products produced in laboratories and experts believe that, in the future, it will be possible to profoundly reduce the environmental impact of meat production, which is responsible for a third of global emissions. of greenhouse gases. However, there is still a long way to go, since, through the report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on the future of food security, it can be verified that, in 2022, there was an increase in demand for animal origin.
So far, Singapore is the only country that has approved the sale of lab-produced meat, but the US government has also paved the way, after US authorities deemed a product derived from animal cells to be safe. for human consumption. The Food and Drug Administration, the federal agency of the US Department of Health, recently allowed Upside Foods produce artificial meat in the laboratory, based on live chicken cells, without involving the sacrifice of any animal.
The mammoth meatball was unveiled Tuesday in a glass dome at the NEMO science museum in the Netherlands.
Source: TSF
