The world's first lab-grown burger has been cooked and eaten in London.

 

　　Scientists hope the new technology can be a sustainable way of meeting growing demand for meat and protect the environment.

 

　　CRI's London correspondent Tu Yun has more.

 

　　The burger was grown by a research team led by Professor Mark Post of the Netherland's Maastricht University.

 

　　Austrian food critic Hanni Ruetzler tasted the 320,000-dollar lab-made product.

 

　　"I was expecting the texture to be more soft. I know there is no fat in it, so I didn't know how juicy it will be. But there is quite some intense taste. It's close to meat. It's not that juicy. The consistency is perfect, but I missed salt and pepper."

 

　　Scientists took stem cells from a dead cow and cultured them with nutrients and chemicals so that the cells could develop and multiply.

 

　　The cells then turned them into strips of muscle that were combined to make a patty before being cooked.

 

　　American food writer Josh Schonwald reflects on the artificial beef burger.

 

　　"The texture, the mouth feel has a feel like meat. The absence I feel is the fat. The bite feels like a conventional hamburger."

 

　　An independent study has found that lab-grown beef uses 45 percent less energy on average than farming cattle.

 

　　It also produces 96 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions and requires 99 percent less land.

 

　　Scientists are hoping the new technology can help create a sustainable way of meeting what they say is a growing demand for meat as well as helping protect the environment and animals.

 

　　But as the lab product still tastes different from natural beef, there are questions on how people may change their eating habit.

 

　　Professor Mark Post,

 

　　"That's really a matter of how you market it, which is not my specialty. The yuck factor maybe deconvoluted in a number of issues, one is this just towards any sort of lab or factory made product, which potentially you can do this in your kitchen, you can grow your own meat. You have to know eight weeks in advance when you want to eat. But if you are not afraid of that part of the technology, and of the put it into human hands, then you can do that, or any scale in between. So that comes with new technology."

 

　　Critics argue promoting a healthier life style of eating less meat would be an easier way to kill two birds with one stone.

 

　　For CRI, I'm Tu Yun in London.