A group of food scientist who are figure out to create lab - grown sum have find inspiration in an unlikely source : LEGOs . According toFood & Wine , researchers from Pennsylvania State University and the University of Alabama used LEGO components to create a gimmick capable of ameliorate the texture of the meat they were cultivating . Their findings were latterly published in the journalFood Hydrocolloids .
Any protein that follow from “ prow or stem - same animal cells ” that are cultured in a lab can be considered lab - grown meat , according toPenn State . While laboratory - grown meat can be labeled a centre substitute because it require far fewer animals for its production , it remains to be seen whethervegansand vegetarians will be willing to wipe out it .
Lab - grown meat is still very much in the developing stages , and scientist are work on way to improve the texture . Because cultivated muscleman cell do n’t have any picky structure when they arise , the meat generally come out resembling ground beef . That ’s fine if you ’re hoping to make more humanist greaser , but it presents a challenge when trying to make , say , a research lab - develop steak .
This is where the plaything bricks occur in . Researchers used LEGOPower Functionsto make an electrospinning equipment that was able of call on amylum vulcanized fiber into a structured sum “ scaffold . ” The plastic pieces were idealistic because they were n’t conductive , which was crucial because the investigator were working with water and ethanol .
Unlike scaffold that bring forth charge plate fibers for biomedical purposes , the LEGO gimmick was capable of spinning corn - derive fibre . In other words , what ’s going into the nitty-gritty is entirely comestible . “ The idea is we could make a nice , comestible , clean-living scaffold for our blank pith , ” Gregory Ziegler , a Penn State professor and director of graduate studies at the university ’s Department of Food Science , toldFood & Wine .
Scientists are now looking for direction to better their equipment to churn out larger measure of starch scaffold .
[ h / tFood & Wine ]
