Wow: scientists make a meatball from… mammoth meat
For most carnivores, nothing beats a tasty meatball every now and then. But would you eat one if it were made from mammoth meat? Yes, mammoth meat: this week, it was shining in the form of a meatball at NEMO in Amsterdam.
Meatball made from cultured meat
No, you don’t have to worry that some stray mammoth is still wandering around somewhere and was slaughtered for this experiment. It’s a meatball made from cultured meat. The DNA of the woolly mammoth (and a little DNA from the African elephant) was used for it. Cultured meat company VOW worked together with Australia’s Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. Various universities had put the genetic information from mammoth DNA online.
Why a mammoth meatball?
Now you may be wondering: why are scientists doing this? Bringing an ancient animal species ‘back to life’ in the form of a meatball? It’s mainly about the fact that cultured meat allows us to make a meatball (or at least meat). Because the idea is that with cultured meat, we don’t have to deplete water, land and feed, but can ‘simply’ make use of the possibilities offered by the lab. Plus: we no longer have to slaughter animals. Why are scientists choosing the mammoth? There’s a symbolic element to it. The mammoth went extinct around 4,000 years ago due to climate change.
And how does it taste?
We don’t know yet. The meatball isn’t allowed to be eaten just yet. In Europe, eating cultured meat products is prohibited. Moreover, the mammoth meatball was made inedible when it was transported from Australia to the Netherlands. It was treated with formaldehyde so that scientists can preserve it forever. So for now, we can’t order the mammoth meatball from our favorite snack bar. What is possible, for those who are interested: meatballs made from cricket meat from Lidl. Or printed fake meat.
We’ll just stick with really tasty meatballs. Tip: try mixing veal mince with some veal kidney fat for a truly juicy meatball.
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