SINGAPORE: Singapore may be a food paradise but its research on food is far from ideal, says food research expert and author Professor Brian Ford.

And here's something to chew on - the professor suggests that for a start, Singapore could look at cultivating meat in labs!

The avian flu, the mad cow disease, and most recently, the blue-eared disease affecting pigs in China.

They all endanger human health, if infected meat is consumed.

Which is why, instead of farms, Prof Ford believes that it is timely to start thinking about growing meat in labs.

Prof Ford, President of Cambridge Society for the Application of Research, said: "There is no reason in theory why we shouldn't culture animal cells, and then you can produce all the steak you wanted and never have to kill an animal.

"Although we need to find a way of giving the cultured cells something of the structural complexity of meat, that's a fairly small problem, and I guess that within 7 or 8 years, people could be trying to prototype the production of artificially cultured meat.

"It would be a very good thing and it would immediately allow people, who are vegetarian because they object to the inhuman treatment of animals, to have the benefits of eating meat tissue without involving the slaughter of any animals."

There are currently about 5 labs in the Netherlands and the US which are experimenting on the cultivation of muscles.

But muscles on its own will not be very appetising because of the lack of fat cells, blood vessels and other components that make meat tasty.

The idea of lab-developed food is not quite palatable to many people, so there has been limited scientific interest in this field.

But Prof Ford believes there is good reason to take a bigger bite in food research, because it could mean developing disease-free meat, if the project becomes successful.

And Singapore, he says, is well poised for such research projects.

He said: "You have got here the chance to do an awful lot of research in various areas of science. Stem cell science, for example, is very big at Biopolis. But stem cell science is pretty big everywhere else in the world too - it happens to be the current fashion. But if you are going to do food research, then in many countries they only know the food they know, and Singapore has a greater variety of food than any nation I've ever visited. And were there a theme for research that could be uniquely Singapore, then food research would certainly be top of the list of my priorities."

Currently, there is a Centre of Innovation at the Singapore Polytechnic that conducts research on food.

Several multinationals, including Cadbury Schweppes, Japan's Riken Vitamin and Davos have also set up food research facilities in Singapore.

But compared to food research facilities in the US and Japan, Singapore still has a long way to go. - CNA/ir