Developers Of Lab-Grown Meat Products Face A Tough Market

The founder of a company developing lab-engineered meat and leather products – a.k.a., cultured, test tube, in vitro or, less charitably, “frankenmeat” – recently conducted taste tests of his “steak chips” at the South by Southwest festival in Texas. Tasters seemed to like the stuff, one comparing it favorably to “a thin piece of beef jerky”. But entrepreneur Andras Forgacs and others like him face an uphill battle for market acceptance. A recent Pew survey found that four out of five Americans – increasingly picky eaters paying closer attention to food sources and ingredients – said cultured meat was neither natural nor appealing and they would not eat it.