No proof a study found lab-grown meat funded by Bill Gates causes 'turbo cancer'

A truck with a turbocharged engine boasts enhanced performance and fuel efficiency. TurboTax is one option for filing tax returns online. Turbo cancer … doesn’t exist.

But that didn’t prevent Instagram users from sharing alarming claims about a meat alternative Feb. 22. 

"Study Reveals Bill Gates’ Fake Meat Causes ‘Turbo Cancers’ in Humans," read the post’s caption. "Bill Gates’ lab-grown meat causes cancer in humans who consume it, according to a disturbing new study." 

An image accompanying the post showed Gates, who co-founded Microsoft Corp., and a screenshot that purported to show something Gates posted on X: "Cancers found in fake meat are totally harmless to humans." 

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

(Screenshot from Instagram.)

Gates, a billionaire who has invested heavily in charities and climate research, has invested in companies creating meat substitutes using plant-based ingredients and laboratory technology. 

The original article with a headline that matched the Instagram post was published Feb. 23, 2023, on The People’s Voice, a website that has spread misinformation before. We’ve fact-checked the site’s false headlines numerous times, and Baxter Dmitry — who is credited with writing the article — is a byline seen often on misinformation sites. 

The article doesn’t cite a specific study that supports its claims that "fake" or lab-grown meat causes cancer. 

It linked to a Bloomberg News article about some lab-grown meat companies’ use of "immortalized cells," or cells that proliferate indefinitely. Cancer researchers told Bloomberg News that "because the cells aren’t human, it’s essentially impossible for people who eat them to get cancer from them, or for the precancerous or cancerous cells to replicate inside people at all."

Bloomberg News noted that there are no long-term health studies backing the scientific consensus that immortalized cells are safe to consume. Bloomberg News also said "there’s no evidence that cultured meat cells are going to become cancerous in a diner’s body." 

Scientists who study cultivated meat told The Associated Press that it’s inaccurate to say that immortalized cells used to create lab-grown meat are cancerous.

The People’s Voice article also linked to a Children’s Health Defense article about a protein used in plant-based Impossible Burgers; it did not mention lab-created meat. Children’s Health Defense is an anti-vaccine legal advocacy group created by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

Featured Fact-check

Chris Van Hollen

stated on April 10, 2011 in an interview on ABC's "This Week with Christiane Amanpour"

"The Republicans have demanded deep cuts in education. They've demanded cuts in cancer research and other research to find cures and treatments to diseases."

Neither the Bloomberg News nor the Children’s Health Defense articles contained the word "turbo" or the phrase "turbo cancer." The term "turbo cancer" was popularized by anti-vaccine activists, who’ve repeatedly claimed — contrary to available evidence — that COVID-19 vaccines cause unusually aggressive, fast-growing cancer. 

PolitiFact searched the Nexis database for news reports containing mentions of "turbo cancer" and "lab-grown meat," and found nothing.

Also, an advanced X search for the comment Gates allegedly posted about "cancers found in fake meats" showed no results.

An Instagram post claimed a study revealed "Bill Gates’ Fake Meat Causes ‘Turbo Cancers’ in Humans." 

We found neither reliable studies nor news reports supporting the claim that lab-grown meat causes fast-growing cancer that some people are calling "turbo cancer." 

We traced this claim back to an article on a website known for spreading misinformation. That article did not provide the study that purportedly supported the claim and it showed no proof that lab-grown meat is unsafe. 

We rate this claim False.

RELATED: What Bill Gates has to do with livestock, lab-grown meat