DutchstartupMeatablehas hosted the first legally approved tasting of cultivated meat in Europe.
On the menu was a lab-grown pork sausage.
Meatable saysthe produce is indistinguishable from traditional meat, but causes no harm to animals or the environment.
To replicate the flavours and textures of livestock, Meatable first extracts a single cell sample from a pig.
The sample is then cultivated in a bioreactor.
In Europe, however, no one was previously allowed to eat the output.
That changed when the Dutch governmentgave Meatablethe rubber stamp.
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Their reaction was really positive, said Meatable co-founder andCTO Krijn de Nood.
We will be liaising with the tasters from today to understand their feedback, he told TNW.
That feedback will inform the future product development.
It will also contribute to Meatables software to sell the sausages in the EU.
But the first target market is Singapore.
The cultivated meat market
Meatableplans to launch its pork products next year in Singapore.
In 2020, the city-state issued the worlds first approval for sales of lab-grown meat.
The next target for Meatable is the US, which last year becamethe second countryto permit the sales.
Europe has been slower to embrace the produce.
But the event in Leiden suggests support for cultivated meat is growing.
According to de Nood, the tasting was an important first step towards the market.
But did the flavours live up to the hype?
It tasted just like meaty sausages do!
If all goes to plan, those sausages could be a mere entree on the menu.
A German startup wants to offerlab-grown fishas a main course.
We can only imagine whats cultivating for dessert.
Story byThomas Macaulay
Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he e(show all)Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he enjoys playing chess (badly) and the guitar (even worse).
