Presumably tastes like chicken

real_aurgathor · 2025-04-19T00:08:44+00:00

Scientists create the world’s largest lab-grown chicken nugget, complete with artificial veins! Scientists have grown a nugget-sized piece of chicken using a new method that can deliver nutrients and oxygen to artificial tissues, marking a major breakthrough in cultured meat. While labs have been producing lifelike tissues for more than a decade, previous methods only made small, scattered cell balls less than 1 millimeter thick, or about 0.04 inches. It was a challenge to hold the cell groupings together in a way that more closely mimicked the texture of muscle, and the current generation of lab-grown meats are often tiny pieces clumped together around an edible scaffolding. However, a team of researchers in Japan have achieved new lengths, growing a single, square piece of chicken 2.7 inches (7 centimeters) wide and 0.7 inches (2 centimeters) thick with a new lab tool, according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Trends in Biotechnology. Weighing in at about a third of an ounce, the artificial chicken muscle is a small bite, but is believed to be the world’s largest chunk of lab-grown meat. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/lab-grown-chicken-nugget-artificial-veins-rcna201837 Consumers don’t seem to be too excited about it, and the availability of cultured meat is barely existent, but I guess people have to start somewhere. Consumers in the United States have mixed attitudes toward cultured meat. About a third say they are not willing to try cultivated chicken, and 40% reject cultivated pork, according to a 2024 poll conducted by Purdue University in Indiana. Ethical and environmental concerns may prompt consumers to opt for plant-based meat substitutes, but cultured meat presents a different hurdle to acceptance partly due to perceived food risks, such as its unnaturalness, unfamiliarity and concerns about whether it is safe or healthy to eat, according to a 2022 study. Currently, there is little cultured meat in the market, but they can be legally sold to consumers in three countries: Singapore, the U.S. and Israel. Only two California companies are authorized to sell cultured meat in the U.S., while Florida and Alabama have banned its sales. But “where’s the beef?” In general, it’s much more expensive (at least here in the US) than chicken, and while some might be more finicky about real beef vs. lab grown beef, it could be a much more rewarding process, at least financially.

DrStrange

So, if they make lab-grown pork, is it still not halal? How do we determine if it’s kosher?

px_eliezer_

DrStrange

Pork is NEVER kosher, by definition.

It’s pork!

While lab-grown beef, lab-grown lamb, etc, MIGHT be ok for Kosher certification, PORK is an AUTOMATIC FAIL.

The same should apply in Halal (Muslim) situations—the Quran clearly states that Pork is prohibited.

Andyross

Hopefully that nugget isn’t an actual person.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Nugget_%28TV_series%29

telcodad

Andyross Hopefully that nugget isn’t an actual person.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Nugget_%28TV_series%29

… it is a comic mystery chase drama about the struggles of a father to recover his daughter who entered a mysterious machine and turned into a chicken nugget, assisted by a man who has a crush on her.

Jeez, what kind of drugs were those writers on when they came up with that?!

Also, without proper punctuation, it’s not clear to me if that the “man who has a crush on her” is assisting the father or assisted his daughter entering that mysterious machine.

Unless that man who has a crush on her, really likes chicken nuggets so much, that he helped the daughter to enter the machine, I’ll go with that man assisting the father, then. 😉

Somewhat-Reticent

DrStrange Genetics.

dave

px_eliezer_

Depends on how it defines ‘pork’ in the Torah, don’t it? If it’s anything like ‘meat from a pig’ there’s a loophole a mile wide.

Sparkchaser

px_eliezer_ Pork is NEVER kosher, by definition.

Well, you got me by medical and religious knowledge BUT if they make something in a lab that does not contain “pork cells” but they say this is pork because we tried to make it similar to pork, is it really pork? I don’t think so.

Isn’t it the actual meat that’s Kosher not the name?

real_aurgathor

Sparkchaser BUT if they make something in a lab that does not contain “pork cells” but they say this is pork because we tried to make it similar to pork, is it really pork? I

If the precursor of a lab grown pork is some type of pork (pig) cell, it could be considered pork.

This is how that beautiful piece of white nugget was created:

Chick primary myoblasts were suspended in type I collagen precursors and cultured under bidirectional perfusion (flow rate: 2 ml/min; calculated internal pressure: 3.81 kPa) with alternative inject–withdraw cycles (see Star★Methods). After 9 days of culture, the cell-laden hydrogel shrank and formed a tissue (Figure 4A), which was cut from the HFB with the hollow fibers embedded (Figure S1 in the supplemental information online); the hollow fibers were then manually removed (Figure 4B).

https://www.cell.com/trends/biotechnology/fulltext/S0167-7799(25)00085-X

Presumably, one could switch to pork by using pig primary myoblasts. Whether the “interpreters” of dietary laws declare them kosher/halal or not – that I cannot tell you for certain, but if it will be called “pork”, I think it will not be kosher, partly for simplicity and partly to avoid confusion.

GeekGirl1

dave Depends on how it defines ‘pork’ in the Torah, don’t it? If it’s anything like ‘meat from a pig’ there’s a loophole a mile wide.

Here’s an authoritative answer: Why Do Jews Not Eat Pork?

Can they synthesize a matching wine? It should be white.

Sparkchaser

real_aurgathor Chick primary myoblasts were suspended in type I collagen precursors and cultured under bidirectional perfusion

Doh! I was looking for something like that but didn’t see it. Thanks.

px_eliezer_

Sparkchaser Well, you got me by medical and religious knowledge BUT if they make something in a lab that does not contain “pork cells” but they say this is pork because we tried to make it similar to pork, is it really pork?

If there are no pork-derived cells, then it’s not pork.

But by then, what’s the point?

There are plenty of veggie burgers, veggie sausages, veggie strips, made from various types of soy etc.

But if people want real [pork] (even if it’s made with “Adobe Porkshop”) then it’s [pork]

Here’s the thing:

For people who DO truly follow the restrictions laid down (multiple times) in the Old Testament and in the Quran, they will NOT eat such “pork” no matter what.

And for people who DO NOT follow the restrictions, then they don’t care anyway so there is no issue.

Somewhat-Reticent

px_eliezer_ But by then, what’s the point?

Marketing, but adding “flavored” would likely satisfy Legal.

broknsymetry

px_eliezer_ There are plenty of veggie burgers, veggie sausages, veggie strips, made from various types of soy etc.

I was a vegetarian for many years and I never understood the whole “analogs” thing. If you’re a vegetarian then why eat stuff that looks and tastes like animal products? Don;t get me wrong, I’d buy veggie burgers and hot dogs too for the kids, but just never understood the appeal to adults. Even though I’m no longer a practicing vegetarian I still have some Quorn Chiqin Pieces and Grounds in the freezer.

dave

GeekGirl1

Well, that answers that - lab meat has no hooves at all, nor anything to chew cud with, so it’s all off-limits.

Somewhat-Reticent

broknsymetry why eat stuff that looks and tastes like …

… something that satisfies certain tastes or cravings?
Describing as “tastes like” is Marketing for the inexperienced.
Long-time vegans and vegetarians often use a different vocabulary.

dave

broknsymetry

I don’t cook with e.g. quorn because it ‘looks like’ anything else - I could with it because it’s a useful form of protein.

Veggie burgers too have their place: they’re a convenient portion-sized thing to make a sandwich with, for a quick meal. Fortunately, with the exception of the ‘beyond burger’ subgenre, they don’t taste like meat, even (my favourite) the Boca burger, or have the same texture (though I do want to avoid the ‘mush’ problem).

real_aurgathor

Sparkchaser Doh! I was looking for something like that but didn’t see it. Thanks.

That wasn’t linked or quoted in my OP, but I guess certain details are really relevant here.

Somewhat-Reticent

dave I do want to avoid the ‘mush’ problem

AKA “mouth feel”?

dave

Somewhat-Reticent

More like “things fall apart, the centre cannot hold”

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