Singapore has become the first country to approve sale of cultured chicken after the national food agency determined on Wednesday that it is safe for consumption.
Cultured meat is produced via cell culture, instead from slaughtered animals. Chicken bites by Californian food start-up ‘Eat Just’ is the first product to have passed the regulatory approval. Eat Just CEO Josh Tetrick said that the cultured chicken bites would be manufactured in Singapore.
He expects the product to “be served to consumers in a restaurant setting soon,” though a timeline for when such chicken bites might be available is so far unclear. According to him, in the beginning, the meat which will be sold as nuggets, will be priced at premium chicken prices when it first launches, but the price would fall as production is stepped up.
He explained that “to achieve our mission, we’ll need to be below the cost of conventional chicken.”
Demand for alternatives to regular meat is surging due to concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment in Singapore. But so-called clean or cultured meat, which is grown from animal muscle cells in a lab, is still at a nascent stage given high production costs. Globally more than two dozen firms are testing lab-grown fish, beef and chicken, hoping to break into an unproven segment of the alternative meat market, which Barclays estimates could be worth $140 billion by 2029.
