Scientists claim: artificial meat can trigger cancer
The Italian government was the first in Europe to ban the sale of test-tube-grown meat. At first, Western companies advertised it as a safe (for humans and nature) alternative to regular animal cuts of meat. Now there are suspicions that such "cellular" meat can cause cancer.
But, for example, in Israel, the US and Singapore, test tube meat is officially allowed to be sold in stores. The global market for meat substitutes is predicted to reach $4 billion by 2027 and $11 billion by 2041.
The problem is that no one has yet assessed the impact of such a product on human health. Some scientific publications say that during cell cultivation there is a possibility of unexpected mechanisms that will lead to the emergence of mutant cells similar to cancer cells. The potential effects on the neuromuscular system, metabolism and human health are also not known.
Many challenges need to be addressed to move toward commercial production of cultured meat. For example, a universal medium for cell culturing is bovine serum obtained from bovine embryos taken from steer cows without anesthesia during slaughter. The cost of 1 liter of such serum is from 1 thousand pounds sterling. And global supplies are limited. And all other media that have been tried don't have the desired effect.
Since this technology uses many components that are not used in the production of traditional foods, it must be evaluated absolutely everything - and the substrates on which the cells are grown, and hormones - growth stimulants, and the antibiotics used, and much more.
Claims that cultured meat will save humanity from an ecological point of view also look doubtful. So far, most studies are incomplete, biased or partial. It is not taken into account that livestock farming has shown success in reducing resource consumption and reducing the burden on the environment. At the same time, the fact that the production of artificial meat requires a large amount of energy and generates a significant amount of wastewater is overlooked.