Eat Just CEO Josh Tetrik owes at least one thing to this Thanksgiving: Singapore’s regulators gave the company the world’s first approval for its cultured meat.
The decision paves the way for Eat Just, known for its plant-based egg alternative, which will sell its lab-grown chicken in Singapore as an ingredient. And it will probably attract more competitors to the more Southeast Asian country and suggest other countries to follow Singapore’s lead.
Bruce Friedrich, executive director of the Good Food Institute, said in a statement that a new space race is underway for the future of food.
Over the past decade, dozens of start-ups have been seeking to make cell-cultured meat both tasty and affordable, with the ultimate goal of persuading consumers to turn their backs on traditional meat. Like manufacturers of plant-based meat alternatives, start-ups such as Eat Just, Future Meat Technologies and Bill Gates-backed Memphis Meats argue that their products are healthier for consumers and better for the environment.
“We think that [the way] Tetrik said in an interview that to really solve the problem of meat – which is a health problem, a deforestation problem, a morality problem – is to make animal protein.
Khay ranked 21st on CNBC’s Dispatch 50 list this year for its efforts to transform the food and agriculture industries. The company has raised 300 300 million and was valued at 1.2 billion.
Cultured meat is made by placing stem cells from animal fat or muscle into a culture medium that feeds the cells, allowing them to grow. The medium is then placed in a bioreactor to support cell growth. Tetric compared the process to beer, with a very different end product.
It Just has been working for almost two years to get approval from the Singapore Food Agency. To do so, he had to meet the food safety requirements for the novelty diet and demonstrate a continuous production process for cell-cultured chickens. Safety and quality inspections determine that it also meets poultry meat standards.
The product has a high protein content and a diverse amino acid composition, no antibiotics and very little microbiological content, such as salmonella and E. coli.
It is just going through other regulatory processes to get its cultured meat approved in other parts of the world, including the United States. According to Tetrik, what set Singapore apart from others was its “forward thinking and tough” approach. The Good Food Institute, which advocates alternative protein, said it has been meeting with Singaporean government officials for more than three years to discuss cultured meat.
But the U.S. In, regulatory approval for cultured meat seems far away. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. The Department of Agriculture has been officially overseeing the regulation of cell-based seafood, poultry and meat since 2019. But, like plant-based meats, the products are imported from traditional meat producers, such as the U.S. No will have to face opposition. Kettleman Association.
In addition to regulatory approvals, high production costs are major barriers to industry success. In 2013, Dutch start-up Mosa made 28 280,000 per patti to make a hamburger out of meat. But costs have fallen over the years as the scale has increased. Eat Just, for example, is using 1000-liter bioreactors for its cell-cultured chicken, and Tetrik said the company plans to make its price the same as for premium chicken.
Still, the company is far from bringing its chicken to every home in Singapore. The product, which will be sold under its new Good Meat brand, will be launched in a single restaurant in the country in the near future, Tetrik said.
“We’ll start with the same restaurant and then five, 10, 15 and then eventually go to retail,” Tetrik said. “The infrastructure needed to do that is primarily bioreactors, so we’ll eventually move to 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 liters.”
It Just has partnered with local producers in Singapore for regulatory approval of its cultured chicken and ultimately preparation for sale.
The company also plans to campaign for consumer confidence in the product. Tetrik said it involves being transparent about how to eat cell-cultured meat and reminding consumers about the process of traditional meat production.
As it just comes to scale, the company aims to continue to reduce prices, which also attracts customers and restaurants to try the product.
“Ultimately, it doesn’t become something until it becomes the price of something really important until we are below the price of a traditional chicken,” Tetrik said.
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