Imagine biting into a piece of golden, juicy bacon with that unmistakable pork flavor, only no pig has had to die for you to enjoy it. And no, I’m not talking about tofu, seitan or another plant replica: it’s real bacon, made from pig cells that still belong to a living animal. A concept as disconcerting as it is unique that is already served in a small restaurant in California.
The first cultured pork fat. The startup Mission Barns has become the first company approved to market cultured animal fat and the third to receive regulatory approval for a cell-based food in the United States. In March obtained FDA validation and, shortly after, the support of the Department of Agriculture (USDA)which allowed him to start selling his product on a limited basis.
As TechCrunch detailsit is the first cultured pork fat in the world authorized for human consumption. Until now, only UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat They had obtained similar approvals, but only for chicken. With this decision, Mission Barns inaugurates a new category: real pork fat without slaughtering it and capable of being converted into bacon, sausages, meatballs or salami.
Real meat without slaughter. Cultured meat—also called in vitro meat or clean meat— is not a plant imitation, but biologically real meat obtained without resorting to animal breeding and slaughter. In this case, the animal has its own name: Dawn, a Yorkshire sow who lives in a sanctuary in northern New York.
According to Futurismthe sample is taken painlessly and does not alter your daily life. Its fat cells are grown in a bioreactor with plant nutrients and adhere to a porous structure designed to mimic natural pig tissue. After two weeks, the culture generates real pork fat, which is mixed with vegetable proteins – pea, wheat or bean – to replicate the texture of bacon, sausage or meatball. As explained in Gristthe tastings carried out by the company demonstrate by its flavor and texture that it is meat in biological terms, but without animal sacrifice.
So, Is it a vegetarian option? The arrival of this technology reopens a great ethical debate. Different studies indicate that pigs They are “very social” animals.capable of feeling fear, stress and complex emotions, and They are considered the fifth animal smartest in the world. Being able to obtain meat without sacrificing them represents, for many, a moral change of enormous scope.
That is precisely the reason why, according to The Guardiansome vegetarians have begun to try cultured meat: by eliminating the violence of the process, the ethical barrier that justified not eating meat disappears. Others, however, are hesitant and wonder if consuming “suffering-free meat” fits with their reasons for abandoning animal products in the first place.
A global phenomenon: from California to San Sebastián. The race for cultured meat is global. It is not something from the United States, also in Japan either Netherlands They are already developing lines of cultured beef, chicken or fish. And in Spain, BioTech Foods leads the push from the Basque Country, where it is building the largest cultured meat plant in southern Europe in San Sebastián, with plans to operate in 2032.
The immediate obstacle is regulatory, since the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has not yet approved its commercialization.
Forecasts. Meanwhile, Dawn—the pig that gave rise to this bacon—continues in her sanctuary, oblivious to everything, seeking the sun and letting her belly be scratched. That fat can come out of it for thousands of servings without your life changing poses an unprecedented image in the history of food.
The question is whether society is prepared to take it on. cultured meat promise reduce emissions, suffering and costs; his detractors they talk about an industry still expensive and difficult to climb. Between both visions, the final decision will fall to consumers: whether they accept that the meat of the future can grow in a bioreactor.
Image | Unsplash
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