The world’s most expensive beefburger is about to be served up in London next week – and it’s not even made with real meat.

The £250,000 ‘test tube’  burger has been grown in the lab using the stem cells of a slaughtered cow.

It will be made up of 3,000 strips of artificial beef, each the size of a grain of rice.

Prof Mark Post, a medical physiologist at Maastricht University in Holland has spent two years developing the ‘in vitro’ burger which he believes could help save the environment and prevent a food crisis.

It has been suggested that stem cells taken from one animal could be used to make a million times more meat than is possible from a single cow.

Scientists believe the public demonstration which is taking place at an exclusive West End venue could possibly lead to artificial meat being sold in supermarkets within five to ten years, the Independent on Sunday reported.