Australian_Science_Illustrated_Issue_52_2017

Red palm weevil larva:

Tastes of coconut.

Contains just

as much

protein

as eggs.

protein into meat protein. Instead of wasting

space and water on the animals, it would be

much more efficient, if we just did it ourselves.

Consequently, scientists and food

engineers are trying to find manufacturing

methods for future meat which are not

dependent on living animals. One solution could

be growing the meat in labs, in which cattle,

stables, and large feed fields have been boiled

down into tissue samples in cell cultures.

One of the pioneers is Dutch scientist

Mark Post, who attracted international

attention in 2013, when he served the first

lab-grown burger. By means of a biopsy – a

tissue sample from a living cow, Mark Post

managed to extract muscle stem cells, which

are able to reproduce very considerably in cell

cultures in culture dishes.

Mark Post fed the stem cells the same

nutrients which they would have gotten

from the cow. Subsequently, he deprived

the stem cells of the nutrients, which made

them join just like muscle fibres. After eight

weeks, he had enough to make a burger. In

terms of taste, this early prototype was not

very delicious – particularly because it only

consisted of muscle fibres and did not

include any fat tissue like an ordinary

burger does. Moreover, the cost was

extreme. Due to all the work carried out by

researchers in the lab to grow every one of

the burger’s 20,000 muscle fibres, the price

of this one burger was $340,000. However,

Mark Post is confident that the method can

Many people cannot bear

the thought of eating

insects, so several

manufacturers have begun

to convert bugs into

protein-rich flour, which

can be used in anything

from pasta to cookie

dough. The Nutribug

company's pasta includes

10 % cricket powder. The

pasta includes lots of

protein, calcium, and iron.

Protein pasta

to make it

easier to eat

insects

Termites: Taste like

carrots or pineapple.

They include iron,

zinc, manganese,

which can boost our

immune system.

RICH IN VITAMIN,

MEALWORMS

ARE USED IN

PROTEIN BARS.

SILKWORM LOCUST CRICKET

TON KOENE/ALAMY & NUTRIBUG

ALAMY/ALL OVER & THAILAND UNIQUE

INSECTS