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HONG KONG – First, the meat came from farms and forests. Then it came from the factories. More recently, entrepreneurs have made it from plants.
Some have wondered if there is a more advanced approach: Could meat be grown in the lab, from existing cells? This effort has faced multiple challenges, from skepticism about something that comes from a laboratory to questions about what governments might think.
The nascent lab meat industry scored a small victory on the latter point on Wednesday, as an American startup became the first to gain government approval – in this case, an announcement from the city – state of Singapore – to sell the fruit of its laboratories to the public in the form of “farmed chicken”.
The company, Eat Just, is based in San Francisco and describes its product as “real, high-quality meat created directly from animal cells for safe human consumption.” Singapore’s food agency said on Wednesday it had approved the product for sale as an ingredient in chicken nuggets.
“This is a historic moment in the food system,” Eat Just CEO Josh Tetrick said on Wednesday. “We have been eating meat for thousands of years, and every time we eat meat we have had to kill an animal – until now.
Singapore’s decision is “the world’s first regulatory approval for a cultured meat product,” said Elaine Siu, managing director of the Good Food Institute Asia Pacific, a nonprofit that promotes cultured meat and plant alternatives for animal products.
“Anyone in this field would know that this is the first in the world because everyone has been waiting – and trying to lobby and fight for it – for a few years,” added Ms Siu, whose organization nonprofit is affiliated with a group of the same name in Washington.
Singapore’s food agency said on Wednesday it approved the nuggets after Eat Just submitted a safety assessment to the agency’s “novel foods” working group, whose seven members are outside experts. in food science, toxicology, nutrition, epidemiology and other fields. The agency includes “cultured or cell-based meat grown under controlled conditions” in its definition of novel foods, as well as certain species of algae, fungi and insects.
“We don’t know of any other countries that have approved cultured meat products so far,” agency spokeswoman Ginny Tan said in an email.
Mr Tetrick said an unnamed Singaporean restaurant would start selling the product “early enough to start making a reservation,” but declined to provide further details. The company has previously said it will cost $ 50 to make a single nugget. It now says on its website that the nuggets will be available at “price parity for the top quality chicken you’ll enjoy in a restaurant.”
Eat Just already sells an egg-like product made from mung beans, Tetrick said. The product is sold in the United States and China, he said, and the company plans to expand into South Korea early next year.
Mr Tetrick said he hoped Singapore’s decision to approve his company’s “GOOD Meat” chicken nuggets would prompt regulators in the United States and Western European countries to act more quickly to regulate food. laboratory meat.
“It’s not good for what we’re trying to do to improve the food system if Singapore is the only one with this approval,” he said.
In the United States, Food and Drug Administration approval is not required for most new ingredients, including imitation meat developed by vegan food brands. Companies can hire consultants to run tests, and they are under no obligation to notify the agency of their results, a process known as self-assertion.
Ms. Siu of the Good Food Institute said that to her knowledge, no regulatory body in the world has said that a cultured meat product can be directly marketed. “I think from a business point of view, you would like to have the blessing of the regulator,” she added.
The meat industry has long been the subject of criticism from animal rights activists who argue that eating meat is inhumane. The industry has come under more scrutiny in recent years for its impact on climate change.
Livestock account for about 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions each year, roughly the equivalent of the emissions from all cars, trucks, planes and ships combined. Per gram of protein, cattle have more of an impact than producing pork, chicken or eggs, largely because they spit out methane, a powerful gas that warms the planet.
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