World's First Test-Tube Burger Is Here: If You're Rich and Don't Care for Flavor, This Is Perfect for You!

Taste testers tried the first laboratory-grown beef burger in London. Find out what they thought!

By Bruna Nessif Aug 05, 2013 10:12 PMTags
In-Vitro BurgerREUTERS/David Parry/pool

Who really needs a juicy and delicious burger, anyway? The food of the future is upon us, friends, but unfortunately, it tastes very meh.

The world's first laboratory-grown beef burger went from a petri dish into a frying pan today in London for it's first taste test, and although two (brave) volunteers said it tasted "close to meat," it was also noted that the test-tube burger was lacking flavor.

And with the price of $332,000—sorry, no dollar menu deals here—you'd think they can afford to put an extra dash of seasoned salt or slice of cheese on that beezy.


"I miss the salt and pepper," said Austrian nutritionist Hanni Ruetzler. U.S. journalist Josh Schonwald confessed it was hard to judge the taste "without ketchup or onions or jalapenos or bacon."

Grown in-vitro from cattle stem cells, the test-tube burger was reportedly created by knitting together 20,000 strands of laboratory-grown protein and combined with other ingredients normally used in burgers, such as salt, breadcrumbs and egg powder, with red beet juice and saffron added to give it color.

However, Mark Post, the Dutch scientist who led the team that grew the meat, regretted not adding some aged gouda cheese to the burger (because cheese makes everything better!).

"That would have enhanced the whole experience tremendously," he said. "It's not perfect, but it's a good start."

But why even attempt to make fake burger meat in the first place? Sergey Brin, a cofounder of Google, announced that he funded the very expensive project because he was motivated by a concern for animal welfare.

Ingrid Newkirk, PETA's president and cofounder, said, "Instead of the millions and billions (of animals) being slaughtered now, we could just clone a few cells to make burgers or chops."

Would you eat a test-tube burger? Sound off in the comments!

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