What we know as lab-grown meat set for UK shelves within two years

Lab-grown meat products such as burgers that have been created without animals being killed could be on shelves in Britain within two years.

The technology to grow meat products from cells has been available for some time, but products have not been sold in the UK because of a lack of regulation and safety research around the technology.

The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) hopes to accelerate the timeline to do a full safety assessment of lab-grown foods so that they can go on sale.

Professor Robin May, the chief scientist at the FSA, told the BBC: “We are working very closely with the companies involved and academic groups to work together to design a regulatory structure that is good for them, but at all costs ensures the safety of these products remains as high as it possibly can.”

Lab-grown products for animals are already on sale, with Pets at Home selling Chick Bites which combine plant ingredients with cultivated meat.

How is lab-grown meat made?

The cultivated meat is grown using ‘cellular agriculture’, in which a sample of cells is taken from a living animal, usually under local anaesthetic.

The cells are then placed in a bioreactor – a tank full of nutrient-rich growing medium that allows the cells to multiply.

The cells grow into muscle and fat and are then harvested from the bioreactors and placed on ‘scaffolds’ – edible materials that help shape them into a burger, for example.

The scaffolds are tiny, almost microscopic structures used to grow cells into realistic clumps of meat resembling muscle fibres. Each cultured meat company has its own methods for growing cells and structuring them into something resembling meat.

For example, Aleph Farms – a cellular agriculture company active in the food technology space – creates ‘steak’ by growing it along a plant-based scaffolding to replicate muscle fibres using meat, fat and connective tissue.

The combination of tissues are put in a nutrient broth for four weeks, growing into a thin slice of ‘steak’ which can be grilled.

Is it technically vegan?

Although no animals are harmed in the production of cultivated meat, it is not considered vegan.

The Vegan Society says that cultivated meat still involves using cells from farmed animals and therefore is not strictly vegan.

“Veganism as a philosophy is concerned with ending the exploitation of, and cruelty to, non-human animals,” says the Vegan Society.

“As such, it’s understandable that some vegans may be drawn to the possibilities of this technology. However, as our policy position makes clear, cultured meat is not vegan or a panacea for the horrors of animal use and exploitation.”

How does it taste?

The taste of cultivated meat has evolved considerably, with breakthroughs improving the texture and taste over the years.

Writing in The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter, in March 2023, Casey Crownhart said: “It was definitely different from beef, but maybe not in a bad way. The texture was similar, which makes sense since it was mostly made from plants.

“Taste-wise, I thought the lab-grown meat may have been a bit closer to the beef burger, but I found myself wondering if I’d feel the same way if I didn’t know which was which. Was my brain tricking me into thinking it tasted more like meat, since I knew that there were animal cells in it? I took bites of all three burgers again to try to figure it out. I’m still not sure. “

Online publication Inverse tested lab-grown chicken and said that while it tasted like chicken, it felt somewhere between fish and poultry. The publication wrote: “I take a bite and the flavor is savory and somewhat familiar. It tastes like chicken, to use an old cliche, but it doesn’t necessarily feel like chicken.”

In 2022, Time Magazine tried Aleph Meat’s steak, which comes in a strip of beef grown from stem cells in a bioreactor. Climate correspondent Aryn Baker was impressed, writing, “It is as tender and juicy as the interior of a filet mignon. As I cut into it, the meat tears into strands more characteristic of a brisket, but with none of the dryness.

“I take a bite. The flavor is pure meat—a caramelized crust giving way to a savory richness. The square shape and thin cut betray my steak’s bioreactor origins, but eyes closed, I wouldn’t know the difference… It doesn’t taste like the future. It tastes like steak. Without the guilt.”

Is it kosher and halal?

Some cultivated meats have been certified as kosher, but there is not universal agreement among rabbis about whether all cultivated meat is kosher.

Orthodox Union Kosher, the world’s largest kosher certification authority, certified products from Israeli chicken product company SuperMeat.

Israel’s chief rabbi ruled that Aleph Farms thin-cut steak is kosher, and not considered as meat. But questions still remain for some authorities, especially over issues such as where the cells are sourced from.

Different authorities have expressed different views, but – broadly speaking – cultivated meat can be halal.

Speaking to the National in 2024, Farhan Siddiqi, a graduate of Makkah’s Umm Al Qura University and the imam of Dar Al Hijra Islamic centre in the US state of Virginia said that cultivated meat can be halal if certain conditions are met.

Much current cultivated meat is not halal because the cells are taken from a living animal.

To be halal, the meat has to come from a cow that has been slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law, Siddiqi said, meaning that it has been humanely slaughtered by a Muslim, had its blood drained and was in good health when killed.

Where is lab meat approved – and where is it banned?

Singapore was the first country to approve lab-grown meat for human use, approving the technology in 2020.

The United States approved lab-grown meat in 2023, with products available via restaurants in San Francisco – and expected in mainstream retail by 2026.

Israel has approved some products for sale, and countries including the Netherlands and Australia making progress towards approving lab-grown meat products.

By contrast, Italy banned cultivated meat in December 2023 over fears around how it may impact traditional farming.

The US state of Florida has also banned it with state governor Ron DeSantis announcing in May 2024 that he wanted to “save our beef” from the “global elite” and its “authoritarian plans”.