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posted by martyb on Sunday July 19 2020, @11:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the "parts-is-parts"-(y_oem9BqUTI) dept.

KFC is working with a Russian 3D bioprinting firm to try to make lab-produced chicken nuggets:

KFC is trying to create the world’s first laboratory-produced chicken nuggets, part of its “restaurant of the future” concept, the company announced. The chicken restaurant chain will work with Russian company 3D Bioprinting Solutions to develop bioprinting technology that will “print” chicken meat, using chicken cells and plant material.

KFC plans to provide the bioprinting firm with ingredients like breading and spices “to achieve the signature KFC taste” and will seek to replicate the taste and texture of genuine chicken.

It’s worth noting that the bioprinting process KFC describes uses animal material, so any nuggets it produced wouldn’t be vegetarian. KFC does offer a vegetarian option at some of its restaurants; last year it became the first US fast-food chain to test out Beyond Meat’s plant-based chicken product, which it plans to roll out to more of its locations this summer.

Bioprinted nuggets would be more environmentally friendly to produce than standard chicken meat, KFC says, citing (but not linking to) a study by the American Environmental Science and Technology Journal it says shows the benefits of growing meat from cells, including reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption compared to traditional farming methods.


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  • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2020, @11:13PM (15 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2020, @11:13PM (#1023846)

    First we torture the chickens, then we kill them... now we're going to chop their carcasses into filament and extrude them into nuggets? How the fuck is that more environmentally friendly than just using standard chicken meat?

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2020, @11:16PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2020, @11:16PM (#1023849)

    As a Democrat, you'd probably prefer to hire a civil servant to deep fry the chickens with subsidized solar power.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday July 19 2020, @11:49PM (5 children)

      by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Sunday July 19 2020, @11:49PM (#1023859)

      As a Republican, he would rather an armoured division deep fried the chickens in someone else's country.

      • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2020, @11:53PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2020, @11:53PM (#1023861)

        As a communist, he'd prefer they be deep fried by political prisoners in a work camp.

        • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2020, @12:00AM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2020, @12:00AM (#1023863)

          I thought the second amendment allowed you to shoot poultry directly overhead.

          *ducks* (I mean chickens)

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2020, @01:39AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2020, @01:39AM (#1023911)

            Is that a fowl shot?

            • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday July 20 2020, @03:08AM

              by RS3 (6367) on Monday July 20 2020, @03:08AM (#1023952)

              That was a fowl joke.

      • (Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Monday July 20 2020, @12:08AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday July 20 2020, @12:08AM (#1023866) Journal

        In Soviet Russia, the chicken deep fries you.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Sunday July 19 2020, @11:36PM (7 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Sunday July 19 2020, @11:36PM (#1023854) Journal

    The article implies that lab-grown cells are used, not live chickens.

    With the lab-grown hamburger experiment, fetal bovine serum was used. That part may need to be phased out for future efforts to claim "no animal suffering".

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2020, @12:59AM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2020, @12:59AM (#1023886)

      How do you get fatal bovine serum? Jack off the bull? I can see where that might be fatal . . .

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2020, @01:11AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2020, @01:11AM (#1023895)

        Fatal for whom?

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Monday July 20 2020, @01:12AM (4 children)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday July 20 2020, @01:12AM (#1023898) Journal

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetal_bovine_serum [wikipedia.org]

        Fetal bovine serum (FBS) comes from the blood drawn from a bovine fetus via a closed system of collection at the slaughterhouse. Fetal bovine serum is the most widely used serum-supplement for the in vitro cell culture of eukaryotic cells. This is due to it having a very low level of antibodies and containing more growth factors, allowing for versatility in many different cell culture applications.

        The globular protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA), is a major component of fetal bovine serum. The rich variety of proteins in fetal bovine serum maintains cultured cells in a medium in which they can survive, grow, and divide.

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        • (Score: 2) by zeigerpuppy on Monday July 20 2020, @11:09AM (3 children)

          by zeigerpuppy (1298) on Monday July 20 2020, @11:09AM (#1024036)

          From the same Wikipedia article:

          The first stage of the production process for fetal bovine serum is the harvesting of blood from the bovine fetus after the fetus is removed from the slaughtered cow. The blood is collected aseptically into a sterile container or blood bag and then allowed to clot. The normal method of collection is cardiac puncture, wherein a needle is inserted into the heart. This minimizes "the danger of serum contamination with micro-organisms from the fetus itself, and the environment".[6]

          So unborn calf blood...
          Interesting that it has some special characteristics that are not replicated by serum-free culture medium.

          • (Score: 3, Informative) by zeigerpuppy on Monday July 20 2020, @11:21AM (2 children)

            by zeigerpuppy (1298) on Monday July 20 2020, @11:21AM (#1024041)

            So it's a lot less pretty the more you read.
            About 1 million calves per year are drained of blood while they are still alive. I can understand that this is probably something we should be thinking of phasing out... definitely doesn't sound vegan (vampiric would probably be more accurate)...

            Here's a more detailed description from van der Valk (2003) - (behind paywall)
            https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14630056/ [nih.gov]

            2. The welfare of fetal calves during blood (serum) collection

            Collection of fetal calf blood (serum) occurs in some meat processing plants after the pregnant uterus has been removed from the slaughtered cow at the evisceration stage, which in different countries occurs at different times after the neck cut of the dam. It can occur as early as 5 min or as long as 25–40 min or more after slaughter of the cow (Jochems et al., 2002, Mellor & Gregory, 2003). Blood collection methods involve significant manipulation of the fetus, which in some cases may be suspended from an A-frame with application of an external device that simulates the pumping action of the heart while blood is drained from catheterised umbilical vessels, or the methods may be more invasive, involving insertion of a 12–16 gauge needle between the 4th and 5th rib into the fetal heart. Whatever the method used, if the fetus were to be aware (conscious) during the conduct of such procedures there is potential for it to experience significant pain and/or distress. This raises the issue of whether the fetus is likely to be aware, and if it is, what safeguards could be put in place to minimise any suffering it might experience during the blood collection procedure.

            • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday July 20 2020, @12:56PM

              by acid andy (1683) on Monday July 20 2020, @12:56PM (#1024070) Homepage Journal

              My God, that's horrendous. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised though.

              --
              If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2020, @06:25PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2020, @06:25PM (#1024193)

              "This raises the issue of whether the fetus is likely to be aware, and if it is, what safeguards could be put in place to minimise any suffering it might experience during the blood collection procedure."

              uhh, no. just fucking stop it, you dumb fucks.