Vow Foods: Wild and wacky fake meat on the menu
Would you try a zebra burger on the barbecue this summer? Or perhaps sample a monkey meatball? An Australian start-up is experimenting with lab meat. And here’s what one iconic foodie has to say.
FANCY chowing down on a Zebra burger?
Or perhaps a monkey meatball?
Vow Foods, a Sydney-based company is pushing the possibilities of lab-grown meat beyond the realms of reality, with the aim to one day produce artificial meat grown from animal cells.
But what breeds of animal Vow Foods is working on selling to adventurous consumers remains shrouded in mystery, after the company refused to respond to queries from The Weekly Times.
On its website, Vow Foods proclaims it will push the meat-eating experience beyond “a handful of domesticated animals”, “opening our eyes to the enormity of options available”.
Vow Foods will work to “search and select the specific types of cell which can self-renew and grow to become meat”, according to the website.
It is not clear whether the cells selected would be from an animal or not.
According to the Vow Foods website, humans eat only 0.02 per cent of all animals.
“We eat the food we do today because we were previously constrained by the animals we could domesticate. Growing meat from the cells of animals lets us bypass the restriction altogether,” the website states.
The Weekly Times asked Vow Foods when its alternative protein products would be available for Australian consumers.
Vow Foods co-founder and chief executive George Peppou declined to comment, stating “our focus at the moment is on execution, so, unfortunately, we will have to pass on this opportunity”.
Food writer and presenter Matt Preston said lab-grown meat needed to be part of the discussion regarding how we continue to feed the world.
“The problem is going to be the experience. There are two problems, there will be massive price premiums, and it has to taste better. Imagine a wagyu steak verses a lab one,” Mr Preston said.
“It’s smart in a way to produce proteins or a fake meat that is outside our realm of experience. It’s exotic … we also can’t compare it. Having a bag of chicken nuggets versus lab- grown chicken nuggets, we would spot that the meat might not have the same flavour.
“Going for that esoteric market, you’re not comparing like with like.”
Mr Preston said he would be willing to try an exotic fake-meat product, but said “we are a long way from having lab grown meat replacing steak at a local pub”.
“I’m fascinated by all these options, and it’s exciting seeing people trying to find a solution to feed people,” Mr Preston said.
The Weekly Times food writer Jeremy Vincent said “there is more to food than meat”.
“There are those in the scientific world who focus on the chances of us populating Mars for future generations, when we really first need to get things right here on Earth and better focus financial support to the issues we already know,” Mr Vincent said.
“My approach to future survival would hope that we better balance our diet using existing products in a world which sees us take better care of what we already have, especially the environment, and use a more healthy lifestyle, combining exercise and nutrition.
“In a creative kitchen four animals is plenty for me to play with.”
The NSW Government last year awarded Vow Foods a $25,000 minimum viable product grant to develop its cell-cultivated meat technology.
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