High Tech Food: Cocoon Cooker Grows Meat In Your Kitchen (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

**See photos and video below**

The Cocoon Cooker is the weirdest way to go green yet.

The controversial cooker could 'grow' meat and fish in your kitchen by heating pre-mixed food packets containing animal muscle cells, oxygen, and nutrients. A Chia Pet for steak, in short.

Richard Hederstierna of the Lund Institute of Technology, who designed the Cocoon concept and won first place at the Electrolux Design Lab Competition, told the Daily Mail the device could, "create 100 per cent pure meat without the need for animals to be killed and with no risk of contamination. It will change everything."

Cocoon Cooker:

Wired has an explanation of the device:

Hederstierna's device uses RFID [radio frequency identification] signals to discern the type of fish or meat inserted into the cooker.

The meat's muscle cells, nutrients, and oxygen are heated for a preset time, and voila, delicious meat is born, sans the whole killing animals part.

See a slide show of even more crazy future foods here: The Top 5 Weirdest High Tech Foods. Vote on your favorites and submit other high tech edibles (and cookery)!

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Comments

[Gerda99]

02:43 AM on 10/01/2009

I wonder where the cells come from, and the nutritients? Is there a need to kill or use animals to get this? Anyway, it is a great thing and reminds me of cultured meat, at least this might be a first step to something like it (check out http://www.futurefood.org/in-vitro-meat/index_en.php)

[KarateKid]

07:10 PM on 09/28/2009

No biggie. I'm vegan. I'll never use that cooker unless they figure out a way to make a steak out of tofu.

[PhilipTaylor]

08:00 AM on 09/28/2009

Tasting is believing!

[rf-hawaii]

10:30 PM on 09/27/2009

The quality is apparently only good enough for making meat smoothies.

[anfractuous]

08:04 PM on 09/27/2009

Perhaps we can have a sample of our own muscles grown in the pod. What could be a more beneficial protein for your body than itself? Previously, the ability to enjoy such a treat was restricted to yogic adepts and the man from Nantucket.

[jessieHman]

02:01 PM on 09/27/2009

I originally read this article through MSN and was a bit confused at first. I have a PhD in Astro-Phyics through KU. I work in conjuction with NASA by helping them analyze data from satelites, telescopes, and rovers. I have never heard of anything like this before. So, I checked out the contest, its rules, and each of the 8 design finalists. It was then that I realized that all of these designs, including the "Cocoon Cooker," are in fact not real. They're simply "concepts" of future products and are nothing more than an idea at this point. If you read more in depth about how this product "works," you'll actually find it quite humorous, because there is very little science behind this "idea." Even if this product somehow comes to life (no pun intended) in the next few years, it'll have to go through countless ethical obstactles before it is mass produced and sold to the public.

[Iowafarmgal]

01:43 PM on 09/28/2009

Thank heavens! The voice of common sense. I too read this in disbelief. Growing organs for transplant is a fairly new area of science that is difficult, complicated and expensive. Instant steak will not be here anytime soon.

[davism97]

04:08 PM on 09/28/2009

Congrats on having a phD man. Oooh aaahhh...

[davism97]

09:32 AM on 09/27/2009

This is amazing! So we'll be able to shut down the chicken and cow slaughter houses soon?

[humaneismyth]

08:52 AM on 09/27/2009

this is like a public option to privatized health care-if it takes off and is successful,it will be a serious threat to the profits of the meat industry.Would be great if it could make nice juicy turkey legs!

[Olampean]

03:56 AM on 09/27/2009

Of course, the important thing it that looks, well, mahvelous, simply mahvelous.

As for the food quality, in addition to muscle cells, nutrients, and oxygen, you can add however many marbles you want in order to achieve the desired (OK, shoot me) marbling.

[GoDogGo]

10:34 PM on 09/26/2009

This is 100% imaginary BS. The technology doesn't exist, period. Why would HuffPost even put this up?

[Mazzlefizz]

09:43 PM on 09/26/2009

From what I can gather this device is complete nonsense. It's just an appliance design. There's no actual technology to grow meat or anything else.

What's going on with all of the deceptive article titles on HuffPost lately? Don't turn this excellent site into a tabloid.

[unami]

06:27 PM on 09/26/2009

I have dreamed about such a process for years. Kudos to the mind-reader, well done-now let's eat.

[totalliberal]

06:18 PM on 09/26/2009

I can grow meat by holding it in my hand. I could do it a lot better when I was younger though. ;-)

[Mekales]

09:50 PM on 09/26/2009

Clever... but no one could survive a lifetime on cocktail weenies.... ;^)

[LeftLeanWing]

10:21 PM on 09/26/2009

Good One !

[wsmcke]

11:01 AM on 09/27/2009

That is great!!

[Toby1kanobe]

05:32 PM on 09/26/2009

http://tiny.cc/CwzlG

Whoops...goes with post below...

[Toby1kanobe]

05:31 PM on 09/26/2009

Seems like it's actually being done...