Singapore, first country to allow the sale of artificial chicken meat | the Chronicle

Artificial chicken meat may be offered in restaurants in Singapore after local authorities approved the sale of the product made by US company Eat Just, a qualification unprecedented in the world.

Eat Just, created the project and is working on this idea of ​​meat made in the laboratory from stem cells extracted from muscles and other organic elements like feathers, announced that its pieces of chicken were cleared for sale by the Southeast Asian city-state food safety agency, AFP news agency reported.

The cells are collected by a biopsy which causes minimal damage to the animal, then reproduce in a controlled manner, so that they grow and form new muscle tissue.

“Eat Just submitted a verification request”, The Singapore Food Safety Agency confirmed today.

Your product was “declared fit for consumption in the quantities supplied and has been authorized for sale in Singapore as an ingredient in Eat Just” nuggets “the agency added.

This is “a breakthrough for the global food industry”, was highlighted in a statement, as many companies are looking for ways to produce meat with less environmental impact.

“I am convinced that the authorization of our meat by the regulatory agency will be only the first in Singapore and in the rest of the world”, confessed Josh tetrick, co-founder and director of Eat Just, a company based in San Francisco, United States.

Eat Just claimed to have produced more than 20 batches of artificial chicken meat in 1,200-liter bioreactors before subjecting its production to quality and safety tests.

Global meat consumption will increase by 70% by 2050, and artificial meat may soon meet some of the demanda, according to the company.

Intensive breeding dedicated to the consumption of meat is a source of methane, a gas that promotes the greenhouse effect.

In some countries like Brazil, this sector also contributes to the felling of trees, a natural barrier to global warming.

The development of alternatives to meat is underway, but the products currently available are plant-based.

Dozens of startups are working on artificial meat projects around the world, but production so far has been just experimental.

If lab meat had long been considered too expensive to compete with cattle, Eat Just claims to have done “considerable progress” to reduce these costs.

“From its launch, we will have a price similar to that of a chicken from an expensive restaurant”, a spokesperson told AFP, adding that “It will undoubtedly be a luxury item for years to come.”

Eat Just hopes to be able to get a lower price than conventional chicken in the years to come.

Singapore supports the creation of startups that develop new agricultural and food technologies.

In addition , “imports more than 90% of its food, there is no agriculture”, said William Chen, a Singapore-based scientist who advises the regulatory authority.

The scientist added that food security is one of the reasons for this effort.

Through innovation, Singapore hopes to be able to produce at least 30% of its nutritional needs, the Good Food Institute Asia Pacific, a U.S. organization that supports the development of industrial synthetic proteins, said in a statement..

“We wonder if the rapid commercialization of these products is necessarily the best thing to do”, Given the suspicion that many consumers may have about these products, they pointed out to IDTechEx.

The they warned.