Finger-licking 3D printer chicken is the meat of the future, according to Kentucky Fried Chicken. The fast food giant is working to create a chicken nugget using animal flesh cells reproduced on a 3D computer. The thought makes your mouth water, but maybe not in a good way.  More like the way your mouth waters just before you lose your lunch.

Enter your number to get our free mobile app

Here's the process KFC is working on with a Russian 3D bioprinting company:

  • Scientists will take chicken cells from a slice of flesh
  • The flesh will be grown into a cluster in a lab
  • Those cells will be mashed up in a paste that can be printed into sheets of meat
  • The sheets will be layered into chunks, then shaped, seasoned and sold.

In other words, this ain't your grandma's fried chicken. KFC certainly has good intentions. According to the company,

"The idea of crafting the 'meat of the future' arose among partners in response to the growing popularity of a healthy lifestyle and nutrition, the annual increase in demand for alternatives to traditional meat and the need to develop more environmentally friendly methods of food production."

If all goes to plan, KFC will roll out the 3D printed chicken nuggets in a test market in a Moscow KFC by the end of the year. The big questions:  Will it taste like chicken? And can the public stomach bio-engineered chicken meat?

More From 100.9 The Eagle, The Tri-States' Classic Rock Station