FX.co ★ Growing a burger by your taste

The group of scientists from the Maastricht University in the Netherlands with Mark Post at the helm has presented its achievement. The burger produced from the muscle cells was cooked in one of London's restaurants. The growing demand for meat inspired researchers to develop the project. "Cows are very inefficient, they require 100 grams of vegetable protein to produce only 15 grams of edible animal protein," Dr Post said. It took three months to grow 20,000 muscle strands, which were made into kind of a meat tissue. For a better taste, the lab-grown beef was flavored with bread and egg powder. To give a more realistic color, the scientists added some beetroot juice and saffron. The 140-gram patty, which costs €205,000, was cooked by chef Richard McGowan. According to him, the smell of meat was faint, but the color was rather good. The lab-grown burger was tasted by food experts Josh Schonwald and Hanni Ruetzler, who noted that “it’s close to meat, but it’s not as juicy.” All the expenses were covered by a Russian native, Google co-founder Sergey Brin. One of the wealthiest men in the world invested his own funds in the interest of animals welfare. "When you see how these cows are treated, it's certainly something I'm not comfortable with," Brin said. The experts expect the synthetic meat to begin in around 10-20 years. Such lab-grown meat may be used even by vegetarians, passionate supporters of the humane treatment of animals.