According to the manufacturer, the laboratory-grown meat ball is not suitable for human consumption at present, but it is presented as an alternative to natural meat, and the company hopes that laboratory-grown meat will have a place in the European Union.
The world's first huge meatball made from the DNA of an extinct animal was revealed at the Nemo Science Museum in the Netherlands, which is a ball of cultured meat from the extinct woolly mammoth.
The Australian laboratory-grown meat company Vow created the displayed meatball, which smells like crocodile meat and contains a 4,000-year-old protein.
The company says in a media statement that it has used a team of international experts in molecular engineering in this scientific experiment.
According to the company, the laboratory-grown meat ball is not suitable for human consumption at the present time, but it is an introduction to a more sustainable alternative to natural meat, and it hopes that laboratory-grown meat will have a place in the European Union, which has not yet issued controls for the use of this meat in food.
Where did mammoth meat come from?
The shimmering meatball was displayed under a glass jar by the meat company, and the company said a "protein from the past showed the way for future foods", but it is not yet ready to eat, as the protein that is thousands of years old requires safety testing before modern humans can use it.
Scientists developed a method to form the meat of the extinct animal, as the cells were multiplied to become 20 billion cells, then grown in the laboratory to obtain the piece of meat that was displayed by the museum, but the mammoth does not exist, so where did its meat come from?
Using innovative new technology the giant meatball has been created from the DNA of an extinct woolly mammoth, supplemented with fragments of African elephant DNA.
The company says it aims to think differently about how we produce and consume food, emphasizing that cultured meat may be a viable alternative to traditional animal meat.
The meat was grown over several weeks by scientists who first sequenced the DNA of mammoth myoglobin, a key protein that gives meat its flavour. Gene in sheep stem cells using an electric charge.
The company said that it chose the mammoth, because scientists believe that the extinction of this animal was due to climate change, and wanted to urge people to talk about this meat, which it describes as a more sustainable alternative compared to natural meat.
scientific facts
Returning to some of the scientific facts related to this experiment, the new meat is not considered mammoth meat, but it is lamb meat added to a 400-year-old protein from mammoth proteins, and there is currently no commercial use of the meat of extinct animals such as the woolly mammoth elephant.
Despite the advancement of technology in the cloning of extinct animals and the production of industrial meat now, these technologies are still in their infancy and need more research and development, so it is still unknown whether this meat will be used in prepared foods in the future or not.
The company's attempt to display such unusual and interesting meat may be a publicity stunt, but in return it has succeeded in shedding light on technologies that offer an alternative to traditional meat production, as it requires fewer natural resources and reduces the negative environmental impacts associated with traditional meat production.
Among the main challenges are developing and improving the technologies used to produce alternative meats, and designing and improving the quality of flavour, texture and appearance, to be acceptable to consumers.
Also, the cost of producing alternative meat is still relatively high, and it needs more improvement and development to become suitable, but it is important to ensure the safety of these meats and their conformity with the approved international food and health standards.
