Woolly Mammoth Meatball Sparks Discussion About Cultivated Meat's Potential
Cultivated meat company, Vow, has created a meatball made from cells of the extinct woolly mammoth as part of its mission to start a conversation about how we produce and consume food and to demonstrate the potential of cultured meat to revolutionize the food industry.
Credit: Aico Lind/Studio Aico
A cultivated meat company has created a wooly mammoth meatball using cells from the long-extinct animal, to showcase the possibilities of producing meat from cell cultures, without the need for animal slaughter.
The product also intends to highlight the connection between industrial-scale animal farming, the destruction of natural habitats, and the global climate crisis.
The meatball was made by Vow, an Australian company, using cutting-edge cellular agriculture techniques that involve growing animal cells in a lab and then combining them to create a food product that tastes and looks like traditional meat. The novel product was revealed at the Nemo science museum in the Netherlands.
“We have a behaviour change problem when it comes to meat consumption,” Vow CEO and co-founder George Peppou said in a statement. “The goal is to transition a few billion meat eaters away from eating [conventional] animal protein to eating things that can be produced in electrified systems.
“And we believe the best way to do that is to invent meat. We look for cells that are easy to grow, really tasty and nutritious, and then mix and match those cells to create really tasty meat.”
Credit: Aico Lind/Studio Aico
There are more than 100 companies worldwide working on cultivated meat and seafood products, such as chicken, fish, and pork, but Vow is taking a unique approach, designed to initiate discussion surrounding our eating habits and the future of food alternatives.
“Our aim is to start a conversation about how we eat, and what the future alternatives can look and taste like. Cultured meat is meat, but not as we know it,” said Bas Korsten, the Chief Creative Officer at global creative agency Wunderman Thompson. Korsten and an international team of experts and scientists were the masterminds behind the concept.
The mammoth meatball was produced using new, innovative technology that involved utilizing DNA from the extinct woolly mammoth, along with fragments of African elephant DNA - a close relative of the mammoth.
“We chose the woolly mammoth because it’s a symbol of diversity loss and a symbol of climate change,” said Vow’s co-founder, Tim Noakesmith. The extinction of mammoths was primarily caused by human hunting and the warming of the planet following the ice age.
Credit: Vow
While the mammoth meatball has been unveiled, no one has tasted it.
"It doesn't mean that you can't eat it, but because this protein is literally 4,000 years old, we haven't seen it for a very, very long time," Noakesmith said. "It means that we would want to put it through seriously rigorous testing, like we do with any product that we want to bring to market. And for this purpose we wanted to present it to the world faster and not necessarily bring it immediately to market."
“What's truly exciting about this project is the ability to create a protein that hasn't existed in thousands of years,” said James Ryall, Vow’s Chief Scientific Officer. “Cultivated meat allows us to push the boundaries of culinary innovation and create entirely new food experiences.
“Rather than simply replicating existing products, this technology offers us the opportunity to create something truly unique and better. It's a missed opportunity not to take advantage of the potential of cultivated meat to revolutionise the way we think about food.
“Cultured meat is going to need the support of political systems to generate enough momentum and money to support this brand new technology,” he added.
Saving Animals and the Planet
Cultivated meat is projected to become a key solution in creating a more sustainable and ethical global food system. The process creates ‘real’ meat, but it is cultivated and grown directly from animal cells, rather than a farmed animal. This means that the food industry could theoretically eliminate the need to breed, raise, and slaughter millions of farmed animals around the world each year.
Peer-reviewed research is already reporting that cultivated meat could cause up to 92 percent less emissions than conventional beef. It could also reduce air pollution with meat production by up to 94 percent, and use up to 90 percent less land.
“Not only can cultured meat save our planet but it's tastier than most meats out there right now,” said chef Phillip Davenport. “Cultured meat sparks my creativity as a chef. It's a new playground.
In November 2022, Vow company announced a $49.2M Series A funding to continue its mission - a world record for a Series A raise in the cultured meat industry. The company has raised US$56m (£46m) in investment to date.
Credit: Wunderman Thompson
“I hope this fascinating project will open up new conversations about cultivated meat’s extraordinary potential to produce more sustainable food,” Seren Kell, at the Good Food Institute Europe, told The Guardian.
“However, as the most common sources of meat are farm animals such as cattle, pigs, and poultry, most of the sustainable protein sector is focused on realistically replicating meat from these species.
“By cultivating beef, pork, chicken and seafood we can have the most impact in terms of reducing emissions from conventional animal agriculture.”
In 2020, Singapore became the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval to a cultivated meat product, GOOD Meat’s cultivated chicken. Since its launch, the company’s chicken has featured on menus at fine dining establishments, popular hawker stalls, via the foodpanda delivery platform, and most recently at Huber’s Butchery, one of Singapore’s premier producers and suppliers of high-quality meats.
The United States became the second and latest country to grant approval for cultivated meat products, after both UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat successfully passed the FDA’s rigorous pre-market safety review, both within the last few months.
The two brands will now complete the remaining regulatory steps that will allow cultivated meat to be sold to consumers in the US market. Experts predict cultivated meat could become a $25 billion global industry by 2030.
In 2023 and beyond, Species Unite will continue to champion solutions including cultivated meat that can help transition the world away from animal products. Join our community by becoming a member today and check out our Future of Food podcast episodes to learn more about cellular agriculture.
And on April 18, please join us for a free virtual panel discussion on the future of meat hosted by Species Unite Executive Director Elizabeth Novogratz, featuring leaders from across the alternative protein industries to discuss the road to replacing animals from our food system.
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