A 2027 Guide To Protein

 

- Oliver Thring

As the golfball sized blob sizzled in the frying pan, its dimpled edges turning a rich caramel colour, Uma Valeti, the CEO of Memphis Meats, grew increasingly confident that this might be the meatball that changed the world. Because while the blob browning in the pan wasn’t quite meat, it wasn’t not meat, either. Afterwards, an assistant sampled the cooked product, declaring with genuine surprise that it even “tastes like meat”. Then she asked for more. In that moment Valeti was certain he had a revolution on his hands.

Meat has been cultivated in labs before, of course. But, in February 2016, Valeti’s breakthrough was not only to manufacture enough artificial protein to form a mince, but to combine it with artificial fat cells, too. Soon, diners around the world would be able to enjoy it – the familiar sizzle of frying meat, accompanied by the satisfying savour of charred flesh and liquid-hot fat coalescing. Not only would Valeti’s meat mimic the succulence of a real burger, but it could form a carnivore’s dinner for which not a single cow suffered the bolt.

Interest in lab-grown ‘in-vitro’ meat has exploded in recent years as – driven by a growing awareness of red meat’s impact on both our heart health and the planet – consumer tastes have become increasingly discerning. UN research suggests that the global livestock industry expels a lung-crushing 20% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions – more than those produced by all of the world’s cars, planes, trains and ships combined – while, according to WHO figures, cardiovascular disease is implicated in a third of deaths. But the solution needn’t be a tasteless compromise: researchers at Oxford University predict in-vitro meat could cut these emissions by up to 96% while retaining the same muscle-packing benefits of traditional meat.