Eat Just, which makes sustainable foods such as meat and egg substitutes, has been approved to sell its laboratory-created chicken in Singapore.
The Lion City thus becomes the first country in the world to allow the commercial sale of cultured meat – initially as an ingredient in chicken bites.
This is great news for people who are looking to enjoy meat without animals having to be slaughtered to do so!
The meat alternative is produced by using cultured cells in laboratories and rigorous analysis showed that harvested lab-made chicken meets the standard of regular poultry meat. Because no antibiotics were used, it presents an extremely low and significantly cleaner microbiological content than conventional chicken. It also contains high protein content, diversified amino acid composition, and high relative content in healthy monounsaturated fats and is a rich source of minerals.
Cultured meat’s role in creating a safer, more secure global food supply has been well-documented. The last decade has given rise to a steady increase in the application of animal-cell culture technology toward developing food products. At the same time, meat production has risen dramatically, and by 2050, consumption is projected to increase by over 70 per cent. Major public health crises have been linked to patterns of conventional meat consumption. Hence, safer, more efficient and less environmentally harmful ways of producing meat are urgently required to satisfy growing consumer demand.
The regulatory achievement involved an extensive safety review by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), Singapore’s regulatory authority entrusted with ensuring a safe food supply. During this process, Eat Just complied with SFA’s food safety requirements to assess novel foods. International scientific authorities (with expertise in medicine, toxicology, allergenicity, cell biology and food safety) confirmed Eat Just’s cultured chicken to be safe and nutritious for human consumption.
“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 Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just.
“Working in partnership with the broader agriculture sector and forward-thinking policymakers, companies like ours can help meet the increased demand for animal protein as our population climbs to 9.7 billion by 2050.”
While early estimates put the cost of a chicken nugget at around $50 to be commercially viable, the Eat Just team has told Reuters that the cost has come right down now – almost to the point of being on par with conventional nuggets.
