Good news: Japanese boffins 3D print what looks like marbled Wagyu beef. Bad news: It's tiny and inedible
- Reference: 1630046646
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/08/27/3d_printing_wagyu/
- Source link:
A team at Osaka University extracted bovine satellite cells and adipose-derived stem cells from formerly live cows to grow muscle, fat, and blood vessels in a laboratory.
After analyzing a slice of the genuine article for its design, the boffins spent two days 3D printing layer upon layer of their lab-formed tissue, each just hundreds of microns thick, to create a facsimile of Wagyu beef. The overall goal being to investigate "a promising technology for the fabrication of the desired types of steak-like cultured meats."
[1]
Details of their experiment were [2]published this week in a paper in the journal Nature Communications.
[3]Welcome to cultured meat – not pigs reading Proust but a viable alternative to slaughter
[4]Sergey Brin's 'test-tube burger' cooked, eaten, declared meat-like
[5]Boffins plan to drop €250,000 TEST-TUBE BURGER on London
[6]Woman sues McDonald's for $14 after cheeseburger ad did exactly what it's designed to
The end result? A 5mm-by-10mm morsel that looks somewhat like the famous marbled pink flesh yet is inedible due to the manufacturing process. But it's a good first effort.
[7]
Top and side view of the lab-made meat ... looks, er, yummy? Source: Osaka University. Click to enlarge
Cultured meat is nothing new, though it's typically not created in this form. Sergey Brin's famous [8]$250,000 burger was 5oz of cultured meat mush. Now scientists are employing 3D printing mechanics to make more realistic looking meats, and Wagu is a special challenge due to its appearance and structure.
The beef is highly prized because of its "sashi" fat marbling. This leads to it liquefying in the mouth; the fat melts at a temperature lower than your body temperature. The meat is tenderized in some cases by feeding the cows beer or massaging them, and small (by American standards) steaks can run into hundreds of quid or bucks.
[9]
"By improving this technology, it will be possible to not only reproduce complex meat structures, such as the beautiful sashi of Wagyu beef, but to also make subtle adjustments to the fat and muscle components,” the paper's senior author Michiya Matsusaki [10]said .
The plan is for people to be able to order cultured meat built to their exact desired levels of fat and muscle tissue. Of course, there's the edibility problem to overcome, though that's apparently fixable. Custom, designer printed steaks could be the next thing for a millionaire's dinner table. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YSi34DmrCAp64oWaTBad@gAAAAM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25236-9
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2019/11/16/cultured_meat_expo/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2013/08/05/test_tube_burger_eaten/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2013/05/13/meat_burger_vitro/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/09/mcdonalds_lent_break_fast/
[7] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/08/26/meat.jpg
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2013/08/05/test_tube_burger_eaten/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YSi34DmrCAp64oWaTBad@gAAAAM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/926245
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "there's the edibility problem to overcome"
Edibility doesn't seem to be a problem for the majority of fast food outlets, they seem to be able to sell ship loads of indeterminate, mostly organic mush.
A few weeks back I was out with friends who invited me to a Mac of some description, whether or not the patty had been a part of a formerly live cow was not discernable by taste, true also of the 'fries' with regard to potatoes.
Re: "there's the edibility problem to overcome"
'fries' with regard to potatoes.
Getcher luvverly extruded 3/8" reconstituted potato analogues, get 'em while they're 'ot!
Re: "there's the edibility problem to overcome"
..."friends" who invited me to a Mac...
Fixed that for you.
Buy online
> A 5mm-by-10mm morsel that looks somewhat like the famous marbled pink flesh yet is inedible
None of which matters when the item is posted on *Bay. The photo can be zoomed in. By the time someone tries to eat what they have bought, the seller will have an entirely new identity
Man of the Peeple
As a vegetarian, the only time I heard of the fabulously expensive Wagyu beef was when ex-pressie Obama served it at his inauguration.
No idea if he served it again at his recent maskless [1]birthday bash , but that was hosted at his $12 million house in homely Martha's Vineyard, so possibly...
[1] https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-vanishing-legacy-of-barack-obama
"there's the edibility problem to overcome"
Obviously, if only for space exploration, it will be necessary to provide a way to grow meat without having a lumbering four-legged creature bumbling about the cabin and sending cow pats floating everywhere.
3D printing the meat ? Not exactly a requirement, but hey, why not ?
Edibility, though, is a requirement. I hope they get that fixed.