Dutch researchers develop pork chop from stem cells

Melbourne: Dutch scientists have succeeded in growing a pork chop in the lab from stem cells.

The faux chop is made of 2cm long meat strips and is believed to have the texture of a scallop.

According to the Sun, researchers say this could be an eco-friendly alternative to farming livestock.

"If we took stem cells from one pig and multiplied it by a million, we'd need a million fewer pigs to get the same amount of meat," News.com.au quoted Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, as saying.

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World's 'most expensive' ham leg on sale in London

The Iberico ham comes with its own DNA certificate

"The world's most expensive ham" has gone on sale in London, according to retailer Selfridges.

The leg of Iberico ham, which costs £1,800, went on sale at the food hall in the retailer's flagship store in Oxford Street, central London.

The 7kg (15lb) ham leg comes with its own DNA certificate as proof of authenticity.

Pig farmer and ham expert Manuel Maldonado selected 50 pigs that were reared in Extremadura in western Spain.

The pigs were fed on a diet of acorns and roots to give the ham a distinctive flavour.

'Gourmet luxury'

After being slaughtered their ham was salted and cured for three years, before going on sale in a hand-made wooden box wrapped in an apron made by a Spanish tailor.

"Connoisseurs will appreciate the melt-in-the-mouth texture of this truly amazing Spanish ham," said Selfridges fresh food Buyer Andrew Cavanna.

"The leg may seem to have a large price tag but when you think about the amount of care taken from breeding right through to the curing, it is actually amazing value.

"Every single gram will be savoured as one of life's incredible gourmet luxuries."

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Singapore snorts over McDonald's toy pig blunder

SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) - McDonald's apologized to Singapore Friday and brought a pig back to its toy menu, after a decision to leave the animal out of its Chinese zodiac collection upset many in the predominantly ethnic Chinese nation.

LIFESTYLE

McDonald's this month started selling cartoon character miniatures depicting the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac calendar, but the pig was replaced by love god Cupid as McDonald's said it did not want to offend Muslims.

But the move, just ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday and Valentine's Day in February, backfired as many Chinese customers complained in chatrooms and blogs that they would not have a chance to buy the animal sign of their birth year.

"We're sorry, and we're grateful," the fast food chain said in a half-page advertisement in the Straits Times newspaper, saying it never intended to offend anyone.

Multi-racial Singapore has successfully avoided racial tension since deadly riots in the 1960s, though the government sees race as the biggest potential fault line in society.

"I understand that we need to respect our Muslim citizens as Singapore is a multiracial and multicultural society," Pauline Koh, whose daughter was born in the Year of Pig, wrote to the Straits Times.

"However, in this case, the Pig is one of the Chinese zodiac signs -- part of Chinese culture and customs -- and it is just a soft toy, not food," she wrote. Around 75 percent of the nearly 5 million population in Singapore is ethnically Chinese and 15 percent is Malay or Indian Muslim. McDonald's and many other fastfood chains sell food that is halal, or acceptable to Muslims.

Pork and other pig products are not halal food.

(Reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan and Fabian Ng; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

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