A group of scientists manage to create the first artificial hamburger in a laboratory

A team of Dutch scientists developed the first artificial hamburger in a lab from stem cells vaccines, composed only of protein extracted from animal muscle tissue. The revolutionary burger was tasted on Monday at a press conference in London in which he presented the progress, carried out by an expert group led by Mark Post, of Maastricht University , and funded with 250,000 euros from Sergey Brin , co-founder of Google. Although the project is still in its early stages and still can not occur on a global scale , the researchers believe it could counteract the negative impact of meat production on the environment and help address the growing food crisis. experts As explained in the press conference, the main ingredient of the innovative burger is pure protein vaccine, although the team did not rule out adding fat cells , also laboratory for a more natural flavor. From stem cells extracted from cow muscle tissue, scientists managed to increase their nutrient samples after feeding the cells and accelerate growth by chemicals . After three weeks of continuous process over a million obtained stem cells that were set aside in small containers which were merged to form tiny muscle strips, approximately one centimeter long and several millimeters wide. Once collected 20,000 of these strips, frozen for later pass them at room temperature and turn them into a compact mass that can be cooked hamburger and whose production involved tens of millions of stem cells , according to Professor Post. But for this burger can be a real substitute beef scientists still working to make it look authentic, as the meat produced is white and still taste "is not good enough," admitted team boss. A viable replacement? "If it looks normal meat nor taste , it will not be a viable replacement , "said Helen Breewood, another researcher involved in the project, told the British newspaper The Guardian. To improve these details, the team is trying to give a red color to food made ​​by adding natural myoglobin and fat cells to improve the taste. In the press conference in which he introduced the innovative burger, scientists were very positive with the results, referring to its beneficial impact on the environment and their potential to solve the food shortage of meat in the future. "Cows are very inefficient, require one hundred grams of vegetable protein to produce just 15 grams of edible animal protein. Feed order, we lose a lot of food to feed the cows , "said Post. With cultured meat, however, "we can do it more efficiently because we have all the variables under control and do not need to kill the cow and generate methane," he added. According to investigators, the burger presented was reduced by 90% the need for land and water to produce food and 70% of the total energy that would have been used in the case of a naturally burger.