Birth of the new banger A first taste of lab-grown pork fat cell sausages

Even before I see the sausages, I am greeted by their meaty, rich aroma.

- Linda Geddes

Sizzling in a pan of foaming margarine, they look like regular chipolatas being fried up for a Sunday breakfast , their pink-grey exteriors slowly turning a rich caramel brown.

Consisting of 28% pork fat, bulked out with texturised pea, chickpea, soy and wheat protein, these mini bratwursts would happily sit in a hot dog or next to mashed potato – but these are no standard bangers. Cultivated from cells plucked from a fertilised pig egg and grown inside steel fermentation vessels like those used to make beer, these slaughterfree sausages are being touted as the future of sustainable and ethical meat production.

I’m at Meatable’s laboratories in the Netherlands, attending one of the first legally approved tastings of cultivated meat in Europe – and the first of a cultivated pork sausage.

Such tastings are a crucial step on the road to the commercialisation of lab-grown meat, providing a rare opportunity for a handful of people – including the company’s co-founders – to sample the product, and provide feedback on its taste and mouthfeel, before a finalised recipe is submitted for regulatory approval.