Source: Popular Mechanics

Kentucky Fried Chicken could soon become Kentucky Fake Chicken. The restaurant chain is experimenting with a new kind of meat: 3D bio-printed chicken nuggets.

That basically means KFC is using chicken cells and plant-based material to create a new kind of nugget. Welcome to the future of fast food.

“The project aims to create the world’s first laboratory-produced chicken nuggets,” KFC said in a press release. “They will be as close as possible in both taste and appearance to the original KFC product, while being more environmentally friendly to produce than ordinary meat.”

3D Bioprinting Solutions, a Moscow-based technology company, will develop the “chicken.” To make it happen, researchers will use chicken cells and plant-based material to create a chicken proxy that should be pretty similar in taste and texture. KFC will provide the breading and spices so the scientists can nail the chicken’s traditional buttery flavor and crispy texture.

KFC says there are “no other methods available on the market that could allow the creation of such complex products from animal cells.” That’s technically true, because some of the most popular plant-based “meats” are made purely from plants.

The Impossible Burger, for example, is made up of proteins from soy and potatoes; flavors from heme, the molecule that gives meat its distinctive flavor; fats from coconut and sunflower oils; and binders and food starch to hold it all together.

Biomeat, by contrast, has exactly the same microelements as real chicken, according to the press release. Citing a study by the American Environmental Science & Technology Journal, KFC says 3D bio-printed meat uses only half the energy required to produce traditional meat products, cuts emissions 25-fold, and uses 100 times less land. This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

“3D bioprinting technologies, initially widely recognized in medicine, are nowadays gaining popularity in producing foods such as meat,” Yusef Khesuani, cofounder and Managing Partner of 3D Bioprinting Solutions, said in the release. “In the future … 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.”

The companies expect to begin testing the final product sometime this fall, but it’s unclear when you’ll be able to get your own lab-grown meat at the drive-thru window.

Source: Popular Mechanics