True story: One of my friends completely cut off meat from her diet after watching a documentary on what actually happens in a slaughterhouse. She said she couldn’t bear knowing that the food served to her table meant that an animal had to suffer. Like her, many advocates against animal cruelty have adopted vegetarian diets to avoid leading pigs, cows and chickens to their death.
It’s easier to choose the same path these days, especially with the emergence of plant-based food. These alternatives let you enjoy meaty dishes without actually consuming meat, and even fast food chains have been including such option on their menu. But in Singapore, there’s an innovation that takes the meat-free movement up a notch. Meet laboratory-grown meat, which will be commercially available soon.
The Singaporean government recently permitted U.S start-up Eat Just to sell the chicken meat alternative it had developed in a lab. Approved by the Singapore Food Agency, the meat is made from cultured chicken cells and created in a bioreactor apparatus.
The company conducted over 20 production runs in 1,200-liter bioreactors to produce the lab-grown chicken meat. Eat Just also assured consumers that it has conducted safety and quality checks on the product to meet the mandated food standards.
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With the product’s approval, Singapore becomes the first country to allow a lab-grown meat alternative to be sold commercially. “I’m sure that our regulatory approval for cultured meat will be the first of many in Singapore and in countries around the globe,” said Eat Just co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick.
The start-up aims to roll out the product initially as an ingredient for chicken nuggets, which will be available through a restaurant in the country. While its price has yet to be revealed, Tetrick said the product will be “at price parity (with) premium chicken at a high-end restaurant” for its launch. But in the coming years, the company hopes to bring down its cost as well as distribute the product outside Singapore.
Here’s to hoping that this innovative and environment-friendly meat alternative will make its way to our shores, too.
Header photo by congerdesign from Pixabay
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Writer: YANN MAGCAMIT
