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Cientistas produzem primeirohambrguer de laboratrio (Fonte: UOL cincia 05/08/2013 8h47 / Original: BBC)O primeiro hambrguer feito em laboratrio ser apresentado e degustado nesta segunda-feira, numa conferncia cientfica emLondres.

Cientistas holandeses utilizaram clulas retiradas de uma vaca para reconstituir os msculos de carne bovina, que foramcombinados a outros ingredientes para fazer o hambrguer.

Os pesquisadores dizem que a tecnologia poderia ser uma forma sustentvel para suprir a crescente demanda por carne.

Mas crticos da ideia dizem que comer menos carne seria o jeito mais fcil para compensar a j prevista falta de comida nomundo.

Segurana alimentar

A BBC obteve acesso exclusivo ao laboratrio em que o projeto para produzir a carne foi implementado ao custo de cerca deR$ 750 mil.

Na Universidade de Maastricht, na Holanda, a pouco mais de 200 km da capital Amsterd, o cientista frente do experimentodestaca a preocupao ambiental do estudo.

"Vamos apresentar ao mundo o primeiro hambrguer feito em laboratrio a partir de clulas. Estamos fazendo isso porque acriao animais para abate no boa para o meio ambiente, no vai suprir a demanda mundial (por comida) e tambm no boa para os prprios animais", ressalta Mark Post, professor da Universidade de Maastricht.

Para Tara Garnett, que chefe da Food Policy Research Network (um centro de pesquisas da rea de alimentos) daUniversidade de Oxford, na Inglaterra, os tomadores de deciso precisam olhar alm das solues tcnicas na rea desegurana alimentar.

"Ns temos uma situao onde 1,4 bilho de pessoas no mundo ficam obesas da noite para o dia e, ao mesmo tempo, umbilho de pessoas no mundo todo vo para a cama com fome", ressalta.

"Isso simplesmente estranho e inaceitvel. As solues no se estabelecem na produo, mas na mudana dos sistemas desuprimento e acesso, com barateamento. E mais e melhores alimentos para pessoas que precisam deles", critica.

A receita

As clulas-tronco so as "mestres" do corpo humano, que podem se desenvolver em tecidos em diversas formas, tais comonervos e pele.

A maioria dos centros de pesquisa atuando nessa rea de estudos tenta reproduzir tecidos humanos que possam ser usadospara transplantes, reparando danos em msculos, nervos e cartilagem.

Os cientistas da Holanda querem utilizar tcnicas similares para produzir msculo e gordura dos alimentos.

O professor Mark Post comeou extraindo clulas do msculo de uma vaca. No laboratrio, as clulas so colocadas numacultura - soluo - com nutrientes para promover o crescimento e multiplicao das clulas.

Trs semanas depois, as mais de um milho de clulas-tronco geradas so divididas e colocadas em recipientes menoresonde elas se tornam pequenas tiras de msculo de aproximadamente um centmetro de comprimento e apenas algunsmilmetros de espessura.

As pequenas tiras so ento coletadas e juntadas em pequenos montes, que ento so congelados. Quando alcanam umaquantidade suficiente, elas ento so descongeladas e compactadas na forma de um hambrguer antes de serem cozidos.

Tem gosto bom?

Os cientistas tentaram recriar a carne, que inicialmente tinha a cor branca, da maneira mais autntica possvel.

A professora Helen Breewood, que atua com Post nos estudos, vem tentando fazer com que o msculo criado em laboratriofique vermelho adicionando um composto existente na carne de verdade chamado mioglobina.

"Se no se parece com a carne normal, se no tem gosto de uma carne normal, no se tornar vivel", afirma Breewood.

No momento, porm, este um trabalho em progresso. O hambrguer a ser apresentado hoje foi colorido com suco debeterraba. Os pesquisadores tambm adicionaram farinha de po (ou farinha de rosca), caramelo e aafro, que ajudam nosabor.

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At o momento, os cientistas podem apenas produzir pequenos pedaos de carne por vez. Quantidades maiores iriam requerer um sistema circulatrio para distribuir nutrientes e oxignio.

Os primeiros resultados sugerem que o hambrguer no ter gosto to bom, mas Breewood espera que ele tenha um sabor "bom o bastante".

Sofrimento animal

A pesquisadora Helen Breewood, apesar de atuar no projeto para produzir carne em laboratrio, vegetariana e acredita que aproduo de carne gasta muitas fontes de energia. Ela afirma que se comesse carne, iria preferir a feita em laboratrio.

"Muita gente considera carne feita em laboratrio repulsiva num primeiro momento. Mas se eles soubessem o que acontecenos abatedouros para a produo de carne normal, tambm achariam repulsivo", ressalta.

Numa nota, representantes do grupo Pessoas pela tica do Tratamento aos Animais (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - Peta) ressaltaram os benefcios da carne de laboratrio.

"(Carne de laboratrio) ir favorecer o fim de caminhes cheios de vacas, frango, abatedouros e fazendas de produo. Irreduzir a emisso de gases de carbono, economizar gua e fazer a rede de suprimento de alimentos mais segura", destacou anota do Peta.

Mas a escritora especializada em alimentos Sybil Kappor diz que sentiria dificuldades em comer a carne de laboratrio.

"Quanto mais longe voc vai do normal, de uma dieta natural, mais corre riscos de sade e outras questes", ressalta.

O ltimo levantamento das Organizao para Alimentao e Agricultura das Naes Unidas sobre o futuro da produo dealimentos mostra crescimento da demanda por carne na China e Brasil - e o consumo s no cresce mais porque muitosindianos mantm a dieta amplamente vegetariana por costume cultural.

Assim, h o risco de que a carne produzida em laboratrio seja uma aparente soluo, cheia de problemas.

World's first lab -grown burger iseaten in London (Fonte: BBC News science and environment - 05/08/2013 12h35)

Scientists took cells from a cow and, at an institute in the Netherlands, turned them intostrips of muscle that they combined to make a patty.

Researchers say the technology could be a sustainable way of meeting what they sayis a growing demand for meat.

Critics say that eating less meat would be an easier way to tackle predicted foodshortages.

The burger was cooked by chef Richard McGowan, from Cornwall, and tasted by criticsHanni Ruetzler and Josh Schonwald.

Upon tasting the burger, Austrian food researcher Ms Ruetzler said: "I was expectingthe texture to be more soft... there is quite some intense taste, it's close to meat, but it'snot that juicy. The consistency is perfect, but I miss salt and pepper."

She added: "This is meat to me. It's not falling apart."

Food writer Mr Schonwald said: "The mouthfeel is like meat. I miss the fat, there's a

leanness to it, but the general bite feels like a hamburger.

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"What was consistently different was flavour."

Prof Mark Post, of Maastricht University, the scientist behind the burger, remarked: "It'sa very good start."

The professor said the meat was made up of tens of billions of lab-grown cells. Askedwhen lab-grown burgers would reach market, he said: "I think it will take a while. This is just to show we can do it."

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, has been revealed as the project's mystery backer.

Prof Tara Garnett, head of the Food Policy Research Network at Oxford University,said decision-makers needed to look beyond technological solutions.

"We have a situation where 1.4 billion people in the world are overweight and obese,and at the same time one billion people worldwide go to bed hungry," she said.

"That's just weird and unacceptable. The solutions don't just lie with producing morefood but changing the systems of supply and access and affordability, so not just morefood but better food gets to the people who need it."

An independent study found that lab-grown beef uses 45% less energy than the average global

representative figure for farming cattle. It also produces 96% fewer greenhouse gas emissionsand requires 99% less land.

Stem cells are the body's "master cells", the templates from which specialised tissuesuch as nerve or skin cells develop.

Most institutes working in this area are trying to grow human tissue for transplantationto replace worn-out or diseased muscle, nerve cells or cartilage.

Prof Post is using similar techniques to grow muscle and fat for food.

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He starts with stem cells extracted from cow muscle tissue. In the laboratory, these arecultured with nutrients and growth-promoting chemicals to help them develop andmultiply. Three weeks later, there are more than a million stem cells, which are put intosmaller dishes where they coalesce into small strips of muscle about a centimetre longand a few millimetres thick.

These strips are collected into small pellets, which are frozen. When there are enough,they are defrosted and compacted into a patty just before being cooked.

The scientists have tried to make the meat - which is initially white in colour - asauthentic as possible. Helen Breewood, who is working with Prof Post, made the lab-grown muscle look red by adding the naturally occurring compound myoglobin.

Start Quote

We are doing this because livestock production is not good for the environment,it is not going to meet demand for the world and it is not good for animals"

End Quote Prof Mark Post Maastricht University

A lot of people consider lab-grown meat repulsive. But if they consider whatgoes into producing normal meat in a slaughterhouse I think they would alsofind that repulsive

End Quote Helen Breewood Project scientist and vegetarian

"If it doesn't look like normal meat, if it doesn't taste like normal meat, it's not... going tobe a viable replacement," she said.

She added: "A lot of people consider lab-grown meat repulsive at first. But if theyconsider what goes into producing normal meat in a slaughterhouse I think they wouldalso find that repulsive."

Currently, this is a work in progress. The burger revealed on Monday was coloured redwith beetroot juice. The researchers have also added breadcrumbs, caramel andsaffron, which were intended to add to the taste, although Ms Ruetzler said she couldnot taste these.

At the moment, scientists can only make small pieces of meat; larger ones wouldrequire artificial circulatory systems to distribute nutrients and oxygen.

Prof Post said initial sampling suggests the burger will not taste great, but he expectedit to be "good enough".

In a statement, animal welfare campaigners People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) said: "[Lab-grown meat] will spell the end of lorries full of cows andchickens, abattoirs and factory farming. It will reduce carbon emissions, conserve water and make the food supply safer."

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The latest United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report on the future of agriculture indicates that most of the predicted growth in demand for meat from Chinaand Brazil has already happened and many Indians are wedded to their largelyvegetarian diets for cultural and culinary reasons.

Lab -grown meat is first step toartificial hamburger (BBC News Science and environment 19/02/2012 20h29 by Pallab Ghosh)

Dutch scientists have used stem cells to create strips of muscle tissue with the aim of producing the first lab-grown hamburger later this year.

The aim of the research is to develop a more efficient way of producing meat thanrearing animals.

At a major science meeting in Canada, Prof Mark Post said synthetic meat couldreduce the environmental footprint of meat by up to 60%.

"We would gain a tremendous amount in terms of resources," he said.

Professor Post's group at Maastricht University in the Netherlands has grown smallpieces of muscle about 2cm long, 1cm wide and about a mm thick.

They are off-white and resemble strips of calamari in appearance. These strips will bemixed with blood and artificially grown fat to produce a hamburger by the autumn.

The cost of producing the hamburger will be 200,000 but Professor Post says thatonce the principle has been demonstrated, production techniques will be improved andcosts will come down.

At a news conference, Prof Post said he was even planning to ask celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal to cook it.

Start Quote

In the beginning it will taste bland. I think we will need to work on the flavour

End Quote Prof Mark Post University of Maastricht

"The reason we are doing this is not to show a viable product but to show that in realitywe can do this," he told BBC News.

"From then on, we need to spend a whole lot of work and money to make the processefficient and then cost effective."

So why use such high tech methods to produce meat when livestock productionmethods have done the job effectively for thousands of years?

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It is because most food scientists believe that current methods of food production areunsustainable.

Some estimate that food production will have to double within the next 50 years tomeet the requirements of a growing population. During this period, climate change,

water shortages and greater urbanisation will make it more difficult to produce food.Prof Sean Smukler from the University of British Columbia said keeping pace withdemand for meat from Asia and Africa will be particularly hard as demand from theseregions will shoot up as living standards rise. He thinks that lab grown meat could be agood solution.

"It will help reduce land pressures," he told BBC News. "Anything that stops more wildland being converted to agricultural land is a good thing. We're already reaching acritical point in availability of arable land," he said.

Lab-grown meat could eventually become more efficient than producing meat the oldfashioned way, according to Prof Post. Currently, 100g of vegetable protein has to befed to pigs or cows to produce 15g of animal protein, an efficiency of 15%. He believesthat synthetic meat could be produced with an equivalent energy efficiency of 50%.

So what is the synthetic burger likely to taste like?

"In the beginning it will taste bland," says Prof Post. "I think we will need to work on theflavour separately by trying to figure out which components of the meat actuallyproduce the taste and analyse what the composition of the strip is and whether we canchange that."

Prof Post also said that if the technology took off, it would reduce the number of animals that were factory farmed and slaughtered.

But David Steele, who is president of Earthsave Canada, said that the same benefitscould be achieved if people ate less meat.

"While I do think that there are definite environmental and animal welfare advantagesof this high-tech approach over factory farming, especially, it is pretty clear to me thatplant-based alternatives... have substantial environmental and probably animal welfareadvantages over synthetic meat," he said.

Dr Steele, who is also a molecular biologist, said he was also concerned thatunhealthily high levels of antibiotics and antifungal chemicals would be needed to stopthe synthetic meat from rotting.