Introducing the Mammoth Meatball

In March 2023 we made a mammoth meatball. This was the first ever meatball made from extinct animal DNA, and and we unveiled it at the Nemo Science Museum in the Netherlands. In collaboration with a team of international experts, our Forged/Vow scientists (Vow is our parent company), embarked on this advanced molecular engineering experiment to show how cultured meat could revolutionise the food industry. We made the meatball using a mix of woolly mammoth DNA with fragments of African elephant DNA, as the closest living relative.

James Ryall, our Chief Scientific Officer, was understandably excited about the potential of this project and creating protein that hasn't existed for thousands of years. “Cultivated meat allows us to push the boundaries of culinary innovation and create entirely new food experiences," he said. "Rather than simply replicating existing products, this technology offers us the opportunity to create something truly unique and better."

You might be wondering what this giant meatball tasted like. Well, the fact is, we didn't get to taste it. This is because it's hard to tell if our immune systems would react well with protein from 4000 years ago or not.

We made the meatball not to eat, but to show the potential of cultured meat from many different perspectives. For example, we know the large-scale production of agricultural meat needs to reduce in order to help end the climate crisis. But this means we need to greatly cut the amount of meat we consume, which is not likely to happen as it requires a huge behavioural change by the human race. With cultured meat, we don't need to wait for a behavioural shift. We can make meat without the environmental impact.

We also wanted to show the endless possibilities of cultured meat – that we can dream it, then create it. We're crafting food for adventure-minded people, those who are looking for something entirely different. Who would have thought mammoth could be on the menu? Think about what else we could craft.

For now, we're focussed on making food that is delicious. But who knows what's around the corner?