KFC has decided the future is 3D-printed chicken. Soon you may be able to ingest a chicken-ish version of chicken which has been 3D printed because I guess there are no more chickens alive on the planet and all we have left is animal cells from… not chickens? May the chickens rejoice!
Delish says that KFC’s next step towards lesser-meat options is 3D printed food and are partnering with Russia’s 3D Bioprinting Solutions based in Moscow. The printed nuggets will use a small amount of “animal cells” and “plant-based materials” to produce chicken meat in a lab. The “plant-based materials” include bread crumbs and spices provided by KFC. The hope is that using these 3D printers will eliminate the need for the mass slaughter of animals to produce meat.
KFC put out a press release to let the world know about their 3D nuggets, calling them the “meat of the future.”
“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. The project aims to create the world’s first laboratory-produced chicken nuggets. 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.”
A final test product should be ready for the fall, so get your ass to Moscow if you want to be the first to try one of these chicken-ish nuggets. And here’s the New York Post‘s description of “meat” printing:
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.
Another vegan “Beyond Fried Chicken” nuggets have been tested in California KFCs and have moved out to Charlotte and Nashville so maybe they’ll spread to the rest of the country as well.
Hmmm… I don’t know how KFC’s customers will react to those 3D chicken nuggets. They might take one bite and say, “Wait a minute, these don’t taste like chemicals and hormones flavored with chicken. SICK!”
Pic: Instagram