A giant meatball made from the flesh of an extinct woolly mammoth has been unveiled at Nemo, a science museum in the Netherlands. The meatball was created by Australian cultured meat company Vow, which used the DNA of a mammoth to cultivate the meat. The company said it wanted to get people talking about cultured meat, which it sees as a more sustainable alternative to real meat.
Vow co-founder Tim Noakesmith said the company wanted to create something that was totally different from anything you can get now. He added that an additional reason for choosing mammoth is that scientists believe that the animal’s extinction was caused by climate change. “We face a similar fate if we don’t do things differently,” Noakesmith said.
The meatball was made of sheep cells inserted with a singular mammoth gene called myoglobin. James Ryall, Vow’s chief scientific officer, explained that when it comes to meat, myoglobin is responsible for the aroma, the colour and the taste.
Since the mammoth’s DNA sequence obtained by Vow had a few gaps, African elephant DNA was inserted to complete it. “Much like they do in the movie Jurassic Park,” Ryall said, stressing the biggest difference is that they were not creating actual animals.
While creating cultured meat usually means using the blood of a dead calf, Vow used an alternative, meaning no animals were killed in the making of the mammoth meatball. The meatball, which has the aroma of crocodile meat, is currently not for consumption.
“Its protein is literally 4,000 years old. We haven’t seen it in a very long time. That means we want to put it through rigorous tests, something that we would do with any product we bring to the market,” Noakesmith said.
Cultured meat as food is not yet regulated in the European Union. Meat consumption is projected to increase more than 70 percent by 2050, and scientists have increasingly been turning to alternatives such as plant-based meats and lab-grown meat.
The creation of the mammoth meatball is a significant step forward in the development of cultured meat, which has been hailed as a more sustainable alternative to traditional meat production. Cultured meat is produced by growing animal cells in a lab, rather than raising and slaughtering animals.
Proponents of cultured meat argue that it could help to reduce the environmental impact of meat production, which is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. They also point out that it could help to address ethical concerns around animal welfare.
However, there are still many challenges to overcome before cultured meat can become a viable alternative to traditional meat. One of the biggest challenges is the cost of production, which is currently much higher than traditional meat production.
Another challenge is consumer acceptance. While some people are excited about the potential of cultured meat, others are skeptical or even repulsed by the idea of eating meat that has been grown in a lab.
Despite these challenges, many experts believe that cultured meat has the potential to revolutionize the food industry. They argue that it could help to address some of the biggest challenges facing the world today, including climate change, food security, and animal welfare.
As the technology continues to develop, it will be interesting to see how consumers respond to cultured meat and whether it will become a mainstream food product in the years to come.