KFC is working with a Russian 3D bioprinting company to create lab-produced chicken nuggets.
The fast food giant announced its ‘meat of the future concept’ and plans to have a product ready to test by the end of this year.
KFC said in a statement: “KFC is taking the next step in its innovative concept of creating a “restaurant of the future” by launching the development of innovative 3D bioprinting technology to create chicken meat in cooperation with the 3D Bioprinting Solutions research laboratory.
“The idea of crafting the “meat of the future” arose among partners in response to the growing popularity of a healthy lifestyle and nutrition, the annual increase in demand for alternatives to traditional meat and the need to develop more environmentally friendly methods of food production.”
If all goes to plan, we could soon be eating the world’s first laboratory-produced chicken nuggets.
The nuggets will be made by taking chicken cells from a small slice of the animal.
To bioprint from cells, scientists usually grow them into a cluster.
These cells can then be turned into a paste that can be printed into sheets.
The sheets can be made into chunks of meat and then processed and seasoned to give them flavor.
Yusef Khesuani, co-founder of 3D Bioprinting Solutions said: “3D bioprinting technologies, initially widely recognized in medicine, are nowadays gaining popularity in producing foods such as meat.
“In the future, the rapid development of such technologies will allow us to make 3D-printed meat products more accessible and we are hoping that the technology created as a result of our cooperation with KFC will help accelerate the launch of cell-based meat products on the market.”
KFC’s project aims to recreate the exact texture of real chicken nuggets and will be adding its signature spices.
The process would still involve animal products so the nuggets wouldn’t be vegan or vegetarian.
However, they would be more environmentally friendly to produce than the standard way of producing chicken meat.
KFC said: “According to a study by the American Environmental Science & Technology Journal, the technology of growing meat from cells has minimal negative impact on the environment, allowing energy consumption to be cut by more than half, greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced 25 fold and 100 times less land to be used than traditional farm-based meat production.”
