The first pork chop created in the laboratory

British scientists have successfully grown a complete pork chop in the lab from just a few animal cells.

The news will become “music for the ears of pigs”, a full-fledged steak has the same texture and elasticity as traditional meat and becomes crispy when fried.

Researchers at Newcastle-based British company 3D Bio-Tissues have already tested a piece of meat that weighs about 33 grams and claims it tastes, feels and smells like real pork. At the moment only one steak created, although the team believes that the technologically engineered meat will be on the market soon. The company is in the process searching for partners, manufacturers and supermarkets to bring the product grown in the laboratory to the store shelves.

The fillet price has not yet been determined as the technology has not yet reached the required scale to allow an assessment. Last year, 3DBT announced that it had grown in a lab three fillet steak prototypes, each weighing only 5g.

People are increasingly turning to vegetarian and vegan diets as they realize the cruelty to farm animals and the impact of pastoralism in general on global climate change. As a result, many researchers are trying different ways to create meat and dairy substitutes that are not based on animal products. These include, for example, edible insects, pea (soy) cheese and sausages grown in the laboratory from several cells.

To create fillet of pork steak, scientists took cells from live pigs using a painless biopsy and placed them in a bioreactor, where they added a patented chemical growth agent called “City-Mix”, which increases the number of cells. As soon as their number increased, the product became similar to a regular steak.

To grow a complete fillet from cells, it took about a monthcompared to raising a pig, which takes about six months.

3DBT claims it is the first lab-grown steak in the UK and also the world’s first “100%” cultured meat product, which is not contains plant-based alternatives to collagen and gelatin, like other lab-grown meats.

3D Bio-Tissues (3DBT) experts are currently working on growing another product (pork loin) that can be introduced and tested outside the lab in the coming months.

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