Mosa Meat, a ‘clean meat’ company based in Maastricht University have announced that they are targeting high end restaurants as the key stockists of their lab-grown meat. They cooked the first burger made from lab-grown tissue fibres in 2013 and have continued to improve their product in the years since the launch of the company.
The driving force behind the innovation is that “traditional meat production will not be able to cope with that level of demand without grave consequences. The switch from traditional meat production to the use of tissue engineering to produce meat would eliminate many of the negative aspects of meat production, and offer us a future where we can preserve this nutritious and delicious product in our menu”, according to the company’s website.
The company’s FAQs also highlight other reasons why they are venturing into lab-grown meat. These reasons include food security saying: “Feeding 2 billion more mouths and accommodating the growing meat demand by increasing living standards in India and China, will put more pressure on crop-for-feed growing as well as breeding and raising livestock.” The environment and animal welfare are concerns that the company have and talk about the environmental impact of cattle farming and the contribution to greenhouse gases.
Talking to Food Navigator, Mosa’s CEO Peter Verstrate said: “We’re 70-80 per cent there” and that the burger should be available in one and a half to two years’ time. He added that Mosa Meat will enter the market in high-end restaurants saying that “it will be a statement, not a commercial venture.”
Another way that this product challenges the conventional meat industry is by the use of antibiotics. Recently in the news, the level of antibiotic resistance in meat in UK supermarkets was high, adding to the issue of the meat industry and health concerns. Mosa Meat doesn’t use antibiotics and that “the cells grow better in the absence of antibiotics.”