Carni-copia – a meat eaters dream or a burger with the lot

Ethically most people would probably not have a problem with that. However muscle stem cells could in principle be taken from any animal. And because you only need a muscle biopsy to start with also animals that are endangered could be used.

White rhino burger any one? Or Giant panda steak?

Based on humans being the top predators and our willingness to try to eat most things that move this would satisfy the most blood thirsty carnivore among us.

Another possible way forward is to engineer the in vitro meat to contain less of substances that are detrimental to our health if we consume too much red meat.

L-Carnitine, a compound synthesized from amino acids Methionine and Lysine in the liver,has recently been discovered to be bad for your heart. This compound is found in red meat and is particularly high in meat from game.

Consumption of red meat delivers L-carnitine to human gut bacteria. When certain species of gut bacteria are exposed to carnitine from food, they produce a waste product, trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), that is associated with atherosclerosis. Large amounts of TMAO-producing bacteria accumulate in the gut as a consequence of a long-term diet rich in meat.

In studies in mice, TMAO has been shown to cause atherosclerosis, the disease process that leads to cholesterol-clogged coronary arteries and further down the track trigger heart attacks. The novel findings are thus that is not the saturated fat or cholesterol that was commonly believed to be the primary cause of heart disease but the presence of L-carnitine in red meat.

Naturally it would be interesting to see what the levels of L-Carnitine are in cultured bovine meat compared to meat from an animal. If it is present in equally high amounts there are methods for reducing or totally blocking carnitine production using biotechnology.

So as a follow up study I would like to see the possibility of producing in vitromeat that is good for your heart. Then the burger chains could truly start to sell their new products as PETA approved, environmentally friendly and to top it all of with a tick from the Heart foundation.

Perhaps the resistance to the building of Big Burger chain restaurants in our leafy suburbs would be less if their product ticked all the boxes above.

I see room to expand their market share for the Burger chain that is willing to support this research.