Experts in the United States have created slices of meat cultured from human cell samples, which they claim "technically" does not imply cannibalism.
The slides were called ‘The Ouroborous Steak’ which was inspired by the Egyptian symbol of the snake that eats its tail, "the urboros". The project was nominated for the Best Design of the Year award at the London Design Museum for 2020.
While one can self-grow meat from cells taken from a cheek swab, the US team has instead used research cells from the nonprofit American Type Culture Collection, which collects, stores and distributes standard reference microorganisms, cell lines and other materials for research and development.
The cells were grown for three months by feeding them with human serum from expired blood donations that would otherwise have been wasted.
The experiment produced "human" steak the size of a single bite, preserved in resin and displayed both at the Museum of Design and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
These slices are unlikely to go on sale, and instead, the designers said they developed the concept to highlight some of the current limitations of lab grown meat in general, and how this still harms animals.
Made by researchers, Ouroboros Steak is made entirely of human products, so it does not cause any harm to animals.
Lab-grown meat actually relies on fetal bovine whey as a protein-rich growth supplement, disturbing claims that it is a cruelty-free and sustainable food source.
"Fetal cow vaccination costs huge amounts of money and the animals' lives," Andrew Pilling, steak developer and biologist at Ouroboros project, told Dezeen.
The researcher at the University of Ottawa explained that "although some meat companies grown in laboratories claim to have solved this problem, to our knowledge these allegations have not been proven true."
Although no laboratory-grown meat has been approved for sale in any country, the concept has already fostered great interest, and some of these products may reach store shelves in the next few years.
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