Singapore has given U.S. start-up Eat Just the greenlight to sell its lab-grown chicken meat, in what the firm says is the world’s first regulatory approval for so-called clean meat that does not come from slaughtered animals.
The meat, to be sold as nuggets, will be priced at premium chicken prices when it first launches in a restaurant in Singapore “in the very near term”, co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick said.Demand for alternatives to regular meat is surging due to concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment. Plant-based substitutes, popularised by the likes of Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods and Quorn, increasingly feature on supermarket shelves and restaurant menus.
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.Singapore, a city state of 5.7 million, currently only produces about 10% of its food but has set out ambitious plans reut.rs/3obXpm4 to raise that over the next decade by supporting high-tech farming and new means of food production.Josh Tetrick said the San Francisco-based firm was also talking to U.S. regulators but that Singapore was a “good bit” ahead of the United States.
