The panda steak is closer than you think

Pandas look delicious, don’t they? Premium Szechuan prime steaks from a juicy 300-pound male smoked with wild bamboo and sizzling away in a frying pan.

Ah, I can almost hear the shrieks of dismay. Spitting activists ready to clobber me with a Linda McCartney sausage. Disgusted slaps from strangers in the street.

Well, you can all calm down and put your poor excuse for a meat substitute away. Because with scientists claiming that lab-grown meat could hit supermarket shelves within five years, you could devour this succulent rare treat without even a flicker of remorse. Real panda meat and not a single cute and cuddly Asian beast harmed.

As The Grocer reveals in its in-depth look at cultured meat this week, enjoying cuts of rare wild animal is just one of the fascinating possibilities thrown up by growing meat from cells and removing slaughter from the supply chain. And, if a number of fancy new startups are to be believed, it’s closer than you think.

What began as the mutterings of Winston Churchill back in 1931 has grown into goldfish fillets cultivated in petri dishes during the 1990s, the first cultured meat hamburger revealed live on air in 2013, and a cohort of social-savvy tech teams today promising cruelty-free cultured chicken by 2022.

And though science still has some serious work to do to make this a reality, the biggest stumbling block to scalable cultured meat remains the court of public opinion. Exclusive research for The Grocer found only 16% of consumers would be keen to try a juicy cultured meat burger regardless of all the ethical and environmental benefits supporters insist it brings.

Spotless safety records, far better education and a big push on the opportunities for healthier meat will all play a role in changing their minds.

But for design agency Path, bombastic and unapologetic brands such as these premium Rare panda steaks, one of three brilliant designs they dreamed up for packaging cultured meat, might just be the way forward too.

So take a good look. Swallow your first wave of disgust. Because prime panda rib-eye could be coming to a store near you far quicker than you think.