In the Netherlands, scientists made a patty out of combined strips of muscles from cells taken from a cow.

Known as the world’s first lab-grown burger, it has been cooked and eaten in a news conference in London.

A food expert commented, it was “close to meat, but not that juicy” and another noted “it tasted like a real burger.”

Researchers said that with the growing demand for meat, this technology could sustain it.

Chef Richard McGeown from Cornwall cooked the burger and food critics Hanni Ruetzler and John Schonwald tasted it.

Austrian food researcher, Ms. Reutzler said after tasting the burger "I was expecting the texture to be more soft. There is quite some intense taste; it's close to meat, but it's not that juicy. The consistency is perfect, but I miss salt and pepper. This is meat to me. It's not falling apart."

Mr. Schonwald, a food writer noted, "The mouthfeel is like meat. I miss the fat, there's a leanness to it, but the general bite feels like a hamburger. What was consistently different was flavour."

Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University, the scientist behind the burger said, "It's a very good start."

He added that the meat was made up of tens of billions of lab-grown cells. Asked when lab-grown burgers would reach the market, he replied, "I think it will take a while. This is just to show we can do it."

Google co-founder Sergey Brin, has been rumored as the mystery sponsor of the project, donated $330,000 (£215,000).

Professor Tara Garnett, head of the Food Policy Research Network at Oxford University said, “We have a situation where 1.4 billion people in the world are overweight and obese, and at the same time one billion people worldwide go to bed hungry," so decision-makers needed to look beyond technological solutions.

This was initially reported by the BBC.