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Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

smithsonianmag.com

61–70 of 493 posts

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#61
Lab Grown meat / food is an area I am incredibly bullish on. I need to find a good way to invest and put my money where my mouth is. I imagine a future where we are able to grow large amounts of meat (fish, beef, chicken, etc) near cities where we are drastically reducing the environmental effects. This will also be a huge boon for seafood as fishing is really destroying the ocean. With economies of scale, I think we will get to the point in say 50 years where the luxury option is "real" beef or "real" fish but we have meat at the price point of rice.

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#62
post #28

> ...the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will need to inspect the company’s production facilities and product While I'm not undercutting the work that the USDA places into regulating consumer safety in the food supply chain, isn't it crazy to think that lab-grown meats are probably going to be under higher scrutiny from a food safety perspective than farm grown and butchered meats?

From a certain point of view lab grown meat is a high risk yolo solution. Animals have a highly effective immune system pumping out hunter killer nano bots to actively fight off invasive microorganisms, lab grown meat doesn’t. Similarly it’s far easier to tell of an animal is extremely infected.

If anything, it seems it would be easier to monitor lab-grown meats for chemical byproducts of harmful microorganisms.

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#63

> ...the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will need to inspect the company’s production facilities and product While I'm not undercutting the work that the USDA places into regulating consumer safety in the food supply chain, isn't it crazy to think that lab-grown meats are probably going to be under higher scrutiny from a food safety perspective than farm grown and butchered meats?

Cows have an immune system, labs don't.

That's a pretty big problem with lab-grown meat. Bacteria are much better at reproducing quickly than cells of complex organisms like animals. So if your reactor is not perfectly clean, you are going to grow bacteria instead of meat. The reason live animals (including us) don't get overwhelmed by bacteria is because they have all sorts of defenses, most importantly, an immune system.

Unless labs have something equivalent in, they will have to be under extreme scrutiny.

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#64
post #45

Safe yes, but also bland and with no texture. It needs more umami flavour and fibrous texture. They should mix it with Marmite and celery.

My understand is the meatless substitutes are chock full of these additives to try to nail the flavor. I’m sure lab grown protein product will need the same treatment.

IMO it’s a nutritional sacrifice in order to avoid eating animal product, not a particularly “healthy” alternative.

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#66

It will be animal cells differentiated into muscle tissues on collagen scaffolds initially. The technology comes from attempts to grow functional organs (ie, liver) that are biocompatible in the body serum proper. If there aren't health effects from transplantation within the animal type you can probably eat the animal tissues just fine. It's the same thing. It's meat. It's just without the animal suffering. And hope…

It's meat, but also without the immune system so...good luck.

Can you explain the significance of your statement?

Surely the meat we all eat is dead along with the immune system and then cooked.

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's meat, but also without the immune system so...good luck.

(This isn’t a sarcastic or Socratic question, just genuine curiosity) Is there some aspect of the immune system that remains active and providing protection to an animal, or parts of an animal after it’s slaughtered?

Not being exposed to air, for one. That's why it's safe to eat a rare steak (where the surfaces exposed to air are cooked to kill bacteria) and why it's not safe to eat rare hamburger (where all the meat has been exposed to air through grinding the meat).

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or consuming terrifying amounts of energy and resources, when you can put a cow in a field until it's big enough to eat.

Imagine thinking modern factory farming is anything as simple as “putting a cow in a field”.

I don't think the expectation is the replicate the horrid factory farming system.

Traditional farming and cattle ranching still exists!

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#70

It will be animal cells differentiated into muscle tissues on collagen scaffolds initially. The technology comes from attempts to grow functional organs (ie, liver) that are biocompatible in the body serum proper. If there aren't health effects from transplantation within the animal type you can probably eat the animal tissues just fine. It's the same thing. It's meat. It's just without the animal suffering. And hope…

It's meat, but also without the immune system so...good luck.

If I understood your comment correctly (I'm sorry if I didn't) - isn't it grown in essentially sterile conditions, so lack of immune system isn't an issue as I must imagine it shouldn't be able to communicate any transmissible diseases?
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