A huge meatball made from flesh cultured using the DNA of an extinct woolly mammoth has gone on display at NEMO, a science museum in the Netherlands, Reuters and AFP reported.
It was created by Australian cultured meat company Vow. From there, they say they want to get people talking about cultured meat and present it as a more sustainable alternative to the real thing.
The company insists that the new product is not an April Fool’s joke.
“We wanted to create something completely different from anything you can get now,” Vow founder Tim Noakesmith told Reuters. He explained that the additional reason they chose a mammoth was because scientists believe the extinction of this animal was caused by climate change.
Since the mammoth DNA obtained by the Vow company was incomplete, experts added that from an African elephant.
“Like they do in the movie ‘Jurassic Park,'” adds Vow’s James Ryall, but stresses that the biggest difference is that they’re not creating real animals.
Creating cultured meat usually means using the blood of a dead calf, but Vow uses an alternative, meaning no animals are killed to create the mammoth meatball.
The product, which has an aroma of crocodile meat, is currently not fit for consumption.
“Its protein is literally 4,000 years old. We haven’t seen him in quite a while. That means we want to do rigorous testing – something we practice with every product we bring to market,” said Noakesmith.
The company “Vow” hopes that cultured meat will find a place on the market in the European Union, where, however, there is still no legislation for such products.
Photo: Lovable Daniels@lovabledaniels
