Saturday, December 16, 2017

halacha - Synthetic unkosher meat?


Suppose tissue identical to that of a pig could be created synthetically (with kosher ingredients) in a science lab. The meat would be completely indistinguishable from pig meat, but it would never have actually been part of a real, live pig. Would this be kosher? If so, would it be meat or parve? If beef were created synthetically would it be meat or parve?



My guess would be that both would be kosher and technically parve, but rabbis would rule that it should not be eaten with dairy to avoid maris ayin. Possibly for the same reason, they would rule that the synthetic pork should not be eaten.


Has this been discussed anywhere?


Related: If a pig was genetically modified to chew its cud, would it be kosher?


EDIT:


I am referring to a completely synthetic process. For example, supposing the scientists figured out the chemical composition of the tissue and performed chemical reactions to fabricate it rather than growing it from some pre-existing animal cells.


Major edit:


See this link about using a 3-d printer to print edible meat.



Answer



There are four options here:


The "meat" is made from plant matter, arranged in the same shape as meat (proteins, fat, etc), but there are no animal cells. The "meat" is vegetarian.



The meat comes from animal cells, and the starting animal cell was not kosher. The meat is then not kosher, despite the huge bitul in the growth medium. This is because the starting cell is considered a Davar Hama'amid and is never batul.


The meat comes from a cell taken from a kosher animal that was shechted properly. According to Chullin 69a if a live fetus was found in a shechted mother the fetus can be eaten without shechting it again. The same would apply to a cell taken from a shechted cow: Any meat made from it is already considered shechted and can be eaten.


The meat comes from a cell taken from a kosher animal that was NOT shechted. I have no idea what the halacha is here. You can't shecht it - there is no complete animal to shecht.


I was thinking that perhaps the meat might be parve since it was not born from a living animal, but maybe not: The cell that started it came from a living animal, so that might be enough for it to not be parve.


PS. Once this meat is on the market an actual posek would have to rule. I am not a posek.


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