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Cultured meat, produced in bioreactors without slaughtering an animal, has been approved for sale by a regulatory authority for the first time. The development was hailed as a milestone in the meat industry.
The “chicken bites,” produced by US company Eat Just, have passed a safety review by the Singapore Food Agency and approval could open the door to a future where all meat is produced without killing livestock, the company said.
Dozens of companies are developing farmed chicken, beef and pork, with the aim of reducing the impact of factory farming on climate and natural crises, as well as providing cleaner, drug-free and meat. cruelty-free. Currently, around 130 million chickens are slaughtered every day for meat and 4 million pigs. Of all mammals on Earth, 60% are cattle, 36% are humans, and only 4% are wild.
The cells of the Eat Just product are cultured in a 1200 liter bioreactor and then combined with ingredients of plant origin. Initial availability would be limited, the company said, and the bites would be sold at a restaurant in Singapore. The product would be much more expensive than conventional chicken until production was ramped up, but Eat Just said it would ultimately be cheaper.
The cells used to start the process were from a cell bank and did not require the slaughter of a chicken because the cells can be taken from biopsies of living animals. The nutrients supplied to growing cells all came from plants.
The growth medium for the Singapore production line includes fetal bovine serum, which is extracted from fetal blood, but much of it is removed before consumption. An herbal serum would be used in the next production line, the company said, but was not available when Singapore’s approval process began two years ago.
A series of scientific studies have shown that people in rich countries eat more meat than is healthy for them or for the planet. Research shows that reducing meat consumption is vital to tackling the climate crisis, and some scientists say it is the best environmental action a person can take.
Companies that develop lab-grown meat believe it’s the product most likely to wean committed meat eaters from traditional sources. Vegan diets are seen as unappealing by some, and plant-based meat substitutes are not always seen to replicate the texture and flavor of conventional meat. Meat grown in a bioreactor also avoids the problems of bacterial contamination from animal waste and the overuse of antibiotics and hormones in animals.
The small scale of today’s cultured meat production requires relatively high energy consumption and therefore carbon emissions. But when scaled up, its makers claim it will produce much lower emissions and use far less water and land than conventional meat.
Josh Tetrick, of Eat Just, said, “I think approval is one of the most important milestones in the food industry over the past decades. It’s an open door and it’s up to us and other companies to seize this opportunity. My hope is that this leads to a world in the next few years where the majority of meat doesn’t require killing a single animal or chopping down a single tree.
But he added that major challenges remained, with consumer reaction to cultured meat perhaps the most important: “Is it any different? For sure. Our hope is that through transparent communication with consumers, what it is and how it compares to conventional meat, we are able to win. But this is not a guarantee. He said cultured chicken was nutritionally the same as conventional meat.
Other challenges included obtaining regulatory approval in other countries and increasing production. “If we want to serve the whole country of Singapore, and ultimately bring it to other parts of the world, we have to switch to 10,000 or 50,000 liter and larger bioreactors,” Tetrick said.
Eat Just already has experience selling non-animal products, such as its plant-based eggs and vegan mayonnaise, to consumers. Another company, Supermeat.com in Israel, has just started free public tastings involving “crispy cultured chicken”.
Industry experts said other companies, including Memphis Meats, Mosa Meat and Aleph Farms, may be successful in the future as they work on textured products like steaks and are able to produce significant amounts of laboratory meat from the start. Tyson and Cargill, two of the world’s largest conventional meat companies, now have a stake in Memphis Meats.
A recent report by global consultancy firm AT Kearney predicted that most of the meat in 2040 will not come from dead animals. Carsten Gerhardt, from the company, said: “Approval in an innovation hotspot like Singapore already in 2020 could accelerate market entry from other developed countries. In the long term, we are convinced that cultured meat will solve the health and environmental impact problems of traditional meat when produced in a highly industrialized way.
Gerhardt said he expected cultured meat to replace traditional cuts of meat, but plant-based products, which were cheaper, were more likely to replace burgers and sausages.
“The [Eat Just approval] is a very big deal for the future of meat production around the world, ”said Bruce Friedrich, of the nonprofit Good Food Institute in the United States. “A new space race for the future of food is underway.” He said cultured meat was unlikely to become mainstream for a few years, until it matched the cost of conventional meat.
Hsin Huang, secretary general of the International Meat Secretariat, which represents the global meat and livestock industry, agreed that the approval of cultured meat was an important moment.
“It looks certain that similar products from other companies will follow,” he said. “There has been so much hype about cell culture meat that the expected first steps in mass sales are an important moment.”
“We believe that the potential of the cultured meat market is vast as consumers in general continue to show great enthusiasm for the taste and nutritional benefits of animal products. Of course, we believe that animal products will better meet these needs, but healthy competition is welcome. ”
He added that livestock are currently essential to the livelihoods of around one billion poor people around the world. He said the IMS strongly believes in consumer choice, with proper labeling and regulation.
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