# Scientists to cook world's first burger made with synthetic beef **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 3, 2013, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-to-cook-worlds-first-burger-made-with-synthetic-beef/665285 "2013-08-03T23:26:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-to-cook-worlds-first-burger-made-with-synthetic-beef/665285/61 "2013-08-07T07:17:56Z")
Other thread about this: > **[Scientists to cook world's first burger made with synthetic beef](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=698435)** > > In a strange echo of some of the other meat-related threads floating around here lately… (But what about material usage?) Link. ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-to-cook-worlds-first-burger-made-with-synthetic-beef/665285/62 "2013-08-07T08:25:17Z")
Would rather have Soylent Green, … at least that was natural. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-to-cook-worlds-first-burger-made-with-synthetic-beef/665285/63 "2013-08-07T11:07:43Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I’m not sure that’s a good assumption. Can’t they take a tiny tissue sample from the living? What if you can get the stem cells from a blood sample? (I don’t know whether they float around in the blood.) Yes, you can get stem cells from a living creature. > [@Terr](#): > > When I said I presume so, I mean I presume that in order to make the “vat-grown” meat kosher, the original stem cells would have to be taken from a dead animal. The cells are living, but they are not a living animal, so the limb-of-the-living would not apply. Nope, you can get stem cells from a living animal - if that makes any difference. Paging SD rabbis… paging SD rabbis… > [@](#): > > The only thing that would work for veganism would be artificially produced meat–perhaps made from plants or a fungus. I seem to remember something like that being worked on, using chemicals to infuse a fungus with meat-like flavors. I can’t remember if they were also trying to bioengineer the fungus as well. You might thinking of [quorn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorn). The fungus is not bioengineered, but because eggs are used in its production it would not be acceptable to vegans, although ovo-vegetarians would find it acceptable. I think they’re trying to develop truly vegan products but I’m not sure if they’re on the market yet. I;ve had quorn, it’s not too bad and probably the better of the faux-meats I’ve tried. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-to-cook-worlds-first-burger-made-with-synthetic-beef/665285/64 "2013-08-07T12:19:08Z")
Merged duplicate threads. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-to-cook-worlds-first-burger-made-with-synthetic-beef/665285/65 "2013-08-07T12:27:59Z")
One thing I didn’t get to say in the more casual thread: Why’d they have to ruin a perfectly good test-tube burger with breadcrumbs? That’s meatloaf, not a hamburger! ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-to-cook-worlds-first-burger-made-with-synthetic-beef/665285/66 "2013-08-07T12:33:35Z")
Probably because the texture of testtube beef is a bit off compared to what we’re all used to eating. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-to-cook-worlds-first-burger-made-with-synthetic-beef/665285/67 "2013-08-08T00:37:02Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Other thread about this: > > [Scientists to cook world's first burger made with synthetic beef - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=698435) Dammit! I even searched first! ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-to-cook-worlds-first-burger-made-with-synthetic-beef/665285/68 "2013-08-08T15:59:25Z")
> **[Has the era of the kosher cheeseburger arrived?](https://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Has-the-era-of-the-kosher-cheeseburger-arrived-322419)** > > Meat produced for lab-grown burger could be considered parve - neither meat nor dairy, Rabbi Menachem Genack says. For kosher-observant Jews, the “cultured” burgers could open the door to radical dietary changes — namely, the birth of the kosher cheeseburger. That’s because meat produced through this process could be considered parve – neither meat nor dairy — according to Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of the Orthodox Union’s kosher division. Thus under traditional Jewish law, the burger could be paired with dairy products. Several key conditions would have to be met to create kosher, parve cultured beef. The tissue samples would have to come from an animal that had been slaughtered according to kosher rules, not from a biopsy from a live animal, Genack said. The principle underlying this theory is much like the status of gelatin in Jewish law: Though it is derived from an animal, it is not meat (the OU certifies some bovine-derived gelatin as parve). =========================================== I don’t think that will fly, due to “mar’it ayin” principle in kashrut laws. Unless “real” meat is eliminated from commerce completely. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-to-cook-worlds-first-burger-made-with-synthetic-beef/665285/69 "2013-08-08T16:21:58Z")
I wonder if the same thing could be done for non-meats, like vegetables. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-to-cook-worlds-first-burger-made-with-synthetic-beef/665285/70 "2013-08-13T19:21:22Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > This open up whole new worlds for **Mangetout** to explore! You know what? [This](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqo0nR6BCEk)burger (made out of thousands of insects) is higher up my to-do list. I think vat meat is a really weird, horrible idea. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-to-cook-worlds-first-burger-made-with-synthetic-beef/665285.md?page=3)