On this day in vegan history · August 5, 2013
The First Lab-Grown Burger Is Cooked and Eaten
A chef fried a patty grown from cow stem cells in a London studio, and two food critics ate it live to find out if meat still needed an animal.
The facts
- Date
- August 5, 2013, London
- Creator
- Mark Post, Maastricht University
- Funder
- Sergey Brin, Google co-founder, reportedly over $325,000
- Composition
- About 20,000 strips of cultured muscle tissue grown from cow stem cells
On August 5, 2013, chef Richard McGeown cooked a burger patty in front of reporters in London, made from roughly 20,000 thin strips of muscle tissue grown from cow stem cells at Maastricht University. The scientist behind it, Mark Post, had spent years and more than $325,000 in funding from Google co-founder Sergey Brin getting lab-grown tissue to hold together as something a person could actually eat. Food researcher Hanni Rützler and food writer Josh Schonwald tasted it on camera, with no idea in advance whether it would taste like anything at all. It wasn't a perfect burger. It was proof the idea wasn't just a lab trick.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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There is really a bite to it, there is quite some flavour with the browning.
Hanni Rützler, food researcher, tasting the burger live in London, August 5, 2013
Source: Wikipedia -
This is meat to me...
Hanni Rützler, food researcher, tasting the burger live in London, August 5, 2013
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
It was the first time cultured meat left the petri dish and became something a stranger could taste and judge in public, turning a scientific claim into a testable one.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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