US company Eat Just has received approval from Singapore's food safety agency for sale of its laboratory produced “chicken bites” product. The approval of the cultured meat, produced in bioreactors without the slaughter of an animal, for human consumption has been hailed as a landmark moment across the meat industry.
The meat is grown in a bioreactor from chicken cells and then combined with plant based ingredients. The approval could open the door to a future when all meat is produced without the killing of livestock, the company said.
Dozens of firms are working to develop cultivated chicken, beef and pork, with a view to slashing the impact of industrial livestock production on the climate as well as providing cleaner, drug-free and cruelty-free meat. Currently, about 130 million chickens are slaughtered every day for meat, and 4 million pigs. By weight, 60% of the mammals on earth are livestock, 36% are humans and only 4% are wild.
Initial availability will be limited, the company said, and the bites would be sold only in a restaurant in Singapore. The product would be significantly more expensive than conventional chicken until production was scaled up, but Eat Just said it would ultimately be cheaper. The cells used to start the process came from a cell bank and did not require the slaughter of a chicken because cells can be taken from biopsies of live animals. The nutrients supplied to the growing cells were all from plants.
Josh Tetrick, of Eat Just, said: “I think the approval is one of the most significant milestones in the food industry in the last handful of decades. It’s an open door and it’s up to us and other companies to take that opportunity. My hope is this leads to a world in the next handful of years where the majority of meat doesn’t require killing a single animal or tearing down a single tree.”
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