HYDERABAD: India’s first laboratory meat project took off on Thursday with the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and National Research Centre on Meat (NRCM) coming together to produce “ahimsa meat”.

With an initial funding of Rs 4.5 crore by the department of biotechnology, scientists will develop mutton and chicken from stem cells, without animal rearing. The

, CCMB scientists said, is nutritionally equivalent to conventional animal meat and it tastes, smells, looks and feels the same.

Experts said using the technology and producing meat in the lab would mean there would be no need to raise and slaughter animals for meat. It not only gives food security, but will help in animal welfare and carbon footprint reduction.

India is among few countries where the government is funding the project to produce fat-free boneless meat.

During a summit on the future of protein and food technology revolution held in August 2018, Union minister

Maneka Gandhi had advised CCMB to make cell-based

ahimsa

meat on commercial scale in the next five years.

CCMB director Rakesh Mishra on Thursday said the institute will develop technology to take laboratory cell culture process to cell-based meat production, so that it can be used at industry level.

“The investment made by the Centre in this project is the biggest investment by a government in this technology,” said Alokparna Sengupta, deputy director of Humane Society International-India — the organisation promoting ahimsa meat.