Lab-Grown Lion Meat Could Be Set For Tables At UK Restaurants

Lab-grown ‘lion meat’ could be set to go on sale in the UK, as well as a whole menagerie of other exotic meats that haven’t actually come from animals.

This is certainly a wild creation, and it probably raises more questions than it answers with regards to whether we should be eating meat and where that meat comes from.

Basically, this meat is ‘cultivated’ and has been pitched by food technology start-up Primeval Foods.

It’s not just lion meat, but tiger, elephant, giraffe, and even sushi made from zebra that could end up in restaurants if the products manage to pass food regulatory checks.

Primeval Foods

The argument is that the lab-grown meat is more climate-friendly than plant-based meat alternatives.

However, even telling a vegan that no animal was technically killed to make their tea might be a hard sell when you’re trying to get them into a dripping safari burger.

The stuff about no animal death happening is true, though.

Cultivated meat is a method of production that allows companies to make food without slaughtering animals.

They just grow the necessary animal cells directly, allowing them the chance to replicate all the nutritional profiles and sensory experiences of eating meat.

Primeval Foods

The overarching idea is that it removes farm animals and therefore saves on land, water, and greenhouse emissions, while protecting habitats that could be otherwise destroyed for farming and grazing animals.

Furthermore, it stops pollution from fertiliser and stops the overuse of antibiotics that is prevalent in farming animals.

Those theories haven’t been proven just yet because – clearly – we’re not all eating it.

That doesn’t mean it’s not a decent idea, though.

A study suggests that the cultivated stuff uses between seven and 45 percent less energy, as well as producing 78 to 96 percent less greenhouse gas.

Land use is – as you’d imagine – down by 99 percent, while water use is down by 82 and 96 percent.

If it can be scaled up to meet needs, that’s really significant.

Primeval Foods

So, why lion meat, though?

Well, Yilmaz Bora – the managing partner of Ace Ventures, which owns Primeval Foods – hopes more exotic fayre might offer something a bit different to get people through the door initially.

He explained: “People are constantly seeking to discover new foods, new restaurants, new culinary experiences, but the traditional species have reached their limitation on meeting this demand.

“It has to go beyond the current beef, chicken, and pork dishes, and it has to come without the expense of nature.”

He continued: “In the coming months, we are planning to have a tasting event in London with one of our cultivated exotic meats, to give the world a taste of what the next chapter of food would look like.”

If it can be made to work, it’s definitely worth a try.