The Future Of Artificial Meat Constituents

Both the consumption and production of meat is one of the most controversial food issues today. Many have already changed their eating habits to a non meat diet for many reasons including personal preference, health concerns, weight management, environmental worries, and money. Another issue that is arising is the quality of certain meats that have lead to a dissatisfaction, leading to an overall shift away from traditional meat. However, there are many substitutes for meat that have been created.

A new and fascinating protein source is meat that is made from stem cells. This protein has many names including “cultured”, “synthetic”, “in vitro”, “laboratory grown” or “artificial”. There is a huge potential shift from standard to synthetic meat. However, many consumers have negative opinions about this substitute, some reasons including, disgust, unnaturalness, and uncertainty in scientific knowledge.

In February of 2013, a survey was carried out in the Netherlands to discover consumers reactions about this new substitute. There were a total of 1,296 volunteers, “79% had never heard of cultured meat, while 14% had heard of it and claimed to know what it is about”. The potential advantages and disadvantages as well as the scientific process was then explained, “63% supported the idea of producing cultured meat and 52% claimed to be willing to try cultured meat.”

Just five years ago, very few individuals were even aware of what synthetic meat was. Now that consumers are more informed and synthetic meat is on the rise, most consumers have their own opinion on whether this is something that they do or do not support. Studies have been conducted that show consumers specific reactions and their reasoning for not supporting this trend. Two separate studies were conducted that specifically look at consumers personal beliefs and feelings towards synthetic meat. Both studies were conducted in Belgium, Portugal, and the UK and looked at the results of 283 individuals. Participants were placed on an online group discussion board. They were prompted to watch a video titled “Would you Eat Synthetic Meat?” and then to post comments and questions on their reactions and first impressions. A common first reaction of the participants after viewing the video was disgust. Specific comments that were left include, “I have only one word for this: disgusting.”, “I would never, personally, I would never put that in my mouth, ever!” and “Maybe we should eat cow in place of creating this freakish thing...”. Most of these comments sparked from the process that was shown during the video on how the synthetic meat is actually created. None of the participants were vegetarians, they were all familiar with traditional meat, and seeing this process came across as disturbing and disgusting.

Another common reaction was synthetic meat is not natural, some viewers responses included “Synthetic meat? I don't like that word ‘synthetic’”, “Brilliant research, OK for medical reasons and things, but mocking around with this like cloning, you know, Dolly the sheep, you're mocking around with nature.”

The synthetic and artificial form of the meat drove many viewers away from it. This also goes a long with personal preference and the eating habits that have already been acquired from the participants. Humans tend to not be open to change and new things most of these reactions are stemming from this idea of something new. Everyone has their own personal opinion on the upcoming and new substitutes for meat, however it will soon be the future. Once the world reaches it maximum population size, we will need to find a way to feed everyone. A large amount of our diet is meat, and we have found technology that will allow us to create artificial meat without wasted the resources that come along with the production of traditional meat. Using technology to create meat could be a huge solution to finding out how to feed humans in the near future. As the demand for meat continues to increase, lab-grown meat will be able to provide humans with the food that we want.