Would you eat a hamburger made in the laboratory of a technological startup, made with vegetable compounds, but that has real taste in meat? This is already possible and shows that the business of "cellular meat" is something serious.One of the pioneering companies in accelerating this global expansion and starting to commercialize this type of products is Burger King. Together with the firm Impossible Foods, the fast food chain launched the "Impossible Whopper", a variant of its iconic hamburger created with vegetable components.First, it will arrive at St. Louis stores and then expand to more than 7,200 locations throughout the United States. This validates the efforts of a young but very promising industry, which seeks to imitate and replace meat cuts through different alternatives."The people in my team who know the Whopper inside and out, try to differentiate which one is which, but they do not achieve it", enthuses Fernando Machado, Marketing Director of Burger King.The other giant that bets on "laboratory" food is Nestle, which confirmed its plans to produce hamburgers with soy protein. Incredible Burger, as its product will be called, will go on sale in several European countries and by the end of the year, a US version will arrive. It will be called Awesome Burger.Land of farmers, cradle of innovationThis trend does not go unnoticed in Argentina, a country in which livestock is one of the main sectors of the economy. Therefore, it is not surprising that a technology that aims to change the industry has already begun to be developed."The livestock plan is against animal ethics and we are exploiting a model that pollutes the planet and uses limited resources," says chemical engineer Sofía Giampaoli, founder and CEO of the startup Granja Celular, dedicated to creating meat from cells. animals.Driven by a need to transform the productive processes within the food industry, Giampaoli began to investigate how to reproduce the cow's stem cells in a laboratory and thus create foods that replicate such properties."Food is for us all, we are more and more people in the world, demand increases continuously, so we have to have methods to increase productivity and, with less natural inputs, we can produce more food for a greater number of inhabitants, "says the expert.In addition, these innovations open the door to the installation of large food factories of this type in the cities, which will alleviate logistics, transport and demand."Producers are transformed with food that improves, without allergens or antibiotics," he says. In addition, risks are avoided by diseases that drag the animals in their hatcheries.The "step by step" is like this:- Stem cells are extracted from tissues taken from the animals in a biopsy (of the gluteus)- They are incubated for three months in a sterilized bioreactor (with laboratory standards)- In the "in vitro" culture, the cells adhere to each other (15,000 million are needed for 100 grams of meat)- They are provided with amino acids, salts and vitamins (in a controlled environment of temperature and oxygen)- This increases its volume and generates filaments that are then compacted to generate the meat cutThe result? Cellular meat with lean tissue and adequate fiber and protein valuesThe cell farm team is completed by biologist Carolina Bluguermann (Conicet researcher with 10 years of experience in cell culture and stem cells) and Giuseppe Scionti PhD (expert in tissue engineering and bioprinting)."We are reaching an incredible impact, which serves to raise awareness and inform about the benefits of this product: in environmental matters, in human health issues and, for those of us interested, from the point of view of animal ethics", Indicates the CEO.GloballyAmong the pioneering companies in this sector, Impossible Foods stands out, offering vegetable burgers with the same taste as meat. In the last edition of the CES fair presented Impossible Burger 2.0, as shown in iProUP video."This company uses technology based on a substitute for hemoglobin, which is capable of deceiving the brain, it is a protein of natural substance found in the roots of some plants and in the blood of animals. , but our mind believes that it is flesh, "explains Scionti, who in addition to participating in Granja Celular is being the CEO and founder of Novameat.Another one that is marking the way is BeyondMeat. Uses soy and legume proteins to recreate flavors. It has proposals that perfectly imitate chicken, with its BeyondChicken product; to beef, with BeyondBeef; and the hamburgers, with TheBeasts.For its part, Novameat, the Scionti project, tries to recreate the taste and texture of hamburgers through a fibrous microstructure made from advanced technology used to make animal-like fabrics.Among the pioneers also stands out Just, an American firm that offers chicken nuggets made from the cells of a chicken feather. The production of these snacks takes approximately two days and takes place in a small bioreactor.It's not just about meatsIn addition to meat, there are other companies that are developing vegetable replacements of other foods of animal origin using technology. An example is Clara Foods, which uses a yeast genetically modified to create a liquid very similar to egg white, as revealed by iProUP.Another case is Muufri, who created a substitute for cow's milk, with the same proteins, fats, minerals and sugars. To do so, he genetically modified yeast, with the addition of synthetic bovine DNA.In Latin America there is another interesting player that is stomping: NotCo, a Chilean company that already has a presence in Colombia and Brasill, which iProUP already gave an account of."We are doing tests in Argentina to launch our products as soon as possible," says Sebastián Álvarez, general manager for Argentina of NotCo."We use artificial intelligence, because it gives us a new way to understand what food is made of, then we combine ingredients from the plant world and replicate the flavors we love so much," says the manager.However, he clarifies: "We work so that food maintains the same behavior, we want NotMilk to taste like milk, boil like milk and have a nutritional profile equal to or better than milk".This company has already launched NotMayo, based on a combination of vegetables with a taste similar to traditional mayonnaise. For this, it uses an artificial intelligence algorithm that maps the chemical composition of plants to find replacements in the plant world.As anticipated iProUP, this dressing will be in the gondolas of the main Argentine supermarkets (the first will be Jumbo) in April or May. Then it will launch NotMilk (milk), NotIcecream (ice cream), NotYogurt (yogurt) and Notcheese (cheese spreadable).Challenges of a new industryAlthough this industry grows globally, it is still too incipient. However, the experiences of Burger King and Nestlé show that the world's leading figures are paying attention to this new segment.Giampaoli knows the challenges of submerging in an underdeveloped segment, but trusts that Argentina can position itself as a benchmark."We want important things not to happen only outside," he explains to iProUP. Today, its development is at the level of other research in top-level technological poles such as Israel, the Netherlands and the United States.Likewise, the graduated ITBA engineer is convinced that cellular meat is part of a solution to a global problem."We are becoming more and more in the world and the current productive process is unsustainable, livestock is responsible for 15% of greenhouse gases, is the biggest cause of water pollution worldwide, deforestation and contributes to generating antibiotic resistance, "he says.Although the concept of "laboratory" is visual because of its development without incidence of nature, the CEO of Granja Celular trusts that this model will reach industrial scales to feed the great populations of the planet."The road to travel is complex because we know that it will alter the paradigm of food production, based on the use of animals as production machines," warns Giampaoli."We have to be aware of where the world is going and that we are responsible for what we consume," concludes the CEO. Maybe, in a few years, your next hamburger will be laboratory.