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SINGAPORE – The world’s first cell-cultured meat product, the bite-size chicken from California-based company Eat Just, will soon be available in restaurants here, now that Singapore authorities have deemed it safe for consumption.
Cultured meat, which involves making meat products by culturing animal cells rather than slaughter, is not yet available for sale and consumption anywhere else in the world.
The farmed chicken bites will be made in Singapore, Eat Just CEO Josh Tetrick said.
“Singapore’s regulatory approval of Eat Just’s farmed chicken as food … paves the way for the product to be served soon to consumers in a restaurant,” Tetrick told The Straits Times, though it did not set a timeline for when the product can be available.
He said that chicken bites would probably cost as much as “premium chicken customers would enjoy at a restaurant to begin with.”
But prices would fall as production increases, he added, noting that costs are already a third of what they were a year ago.
“To achieve our mission, we will need to be below the cost of conventional chicken, which we hope will happen in the next few years,” he added.
Chicken bites also have the potential to be Halal certified, Tetrick said, and this is something the company will consider in the future.
Ensuring food safety
The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) said on Wednesday (December 2) that it is allowing Eat Just’s farmed chicken to be sold in Singapore, now that its evaluations have determined that it is safe.
Dr. Tan Lee Kim, SFA’s managing director of food management, said that food safety was a primary consideration in production.
“The SFA will scientifically review the safety evaluations of these alternative protein products and consult with experts to safeguard food safety and public health. We will also monitor these new products when they enter the market,” he said.
The evaluation process includes considerations of factors such as the manufacturing process of the product and the toxicity of the ingredients, as well as whether the final product meets the standards of food regulation.
In November 2019, the SFA published a document on its website detailing the information that would be necessary for the safety assessment of these novel foods.
These include cultured meat products, like Eat Just’s Chicken Bites, as well as certain types of protein based on insects, algae, and fungi.
The term novel foods refers to products that do not have a history of safe use.
The SFA defines a history of safe use as that of substances consumed by a significant human population as part of their diet for at least 20 years with no reported adverse health effects.
Singapore’s regulatory framework was created by SFA in 2019, following consultation with the scientific community and food companies.
Many plant-based meat products are not classified as novel foods, as they are made from proteins extracted from other commonly consumed plants.
Eat Just’s chicken bites are the first product to pass the SFA evaluation process under the new regulatory framework.
The Straits Times understands that there are other companies looking to bring alternative proteins to Singapore, although not all products may be commercially available anytime soon.
Ants Innovate, for example, is a local company that aims to create cuts of pork using cell culture technology. Their goal is to grow pig muscle cells using the technology and then place these cells on a cellular “scaffold,” The Straits Times previously reported. This will allow the company to produce whole cuts of meat, from pork chops to shoulders, rather than just minced meat.
‘How to make beer’
Eat Just’s Tetrick said people might get the impression that these alternative proteins are made in laboratories.
“The meat that we are making is created in large growers or bioreactors that, over time, will resemble a brewery or similar facility used for the production of cultivated food products,” he explained.
“(To refer to it as) made in the laboratory is a red herring and has an inherently negative connotation. Many of the foods we eat and enjoy every day, including most processed foods, begin in a laboratory and are expanded and commercialized. “. added.
Elaine Siu, CEO of The Good Food Institute Asia Pacific, an international nonprofit that promotes protein alternatives, noted that growing meat in the equivalent of a brewery is safer, cleaner and more efficient than raising animals in farms.
“Instead of building muscle tissue inside live animals, cultured meat producers take some animal cells and use a mixture of nutrients to turn those cells into a piece of meat,” he explained.
“As a result, we get pure meat, the production of which does not require antibiotics, does not require slaughter and does not suffer from faecal E. coli, salmonella or other contamination,” he said.
And modern factory farms are not so natural, Ms. Siu noted, adding: “Almost all conventional meat is the product of both artificial insemination and massive doses of growth-promoting drugs.”
Alternative proteins case
The need for alternative proteins is increasing in the face of challenges such as feeding a growing world population and climate change. The two are intertwined.
A special report from the United Nations climate science panel in August 2019 found that deforestation for large-scale agriculture was degrading the life-giving soil that humanity needs for food and clothing, reducing yields and threatening supply. of food for millions of people.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is a vital guide for governments as the risks of climate change increase in a world where the population is targeting 10 billion people by mid-century, threatening to put pressure on even greater on the planet’s limited resources.
But the report also highlighted solutions, including shifting to less intensive agriculture, conserving ecosystems and restoring land, reducing deforestation, reducing food waste, and shifting to climate-friendly diets.
“New innovations and alternative methods are needed to produce protein-rich foods more productively and sustainably,” said SFA.
The alternative protein is considered more sustainable, as large volumes can be produced with relatively small amounts of land and labor, in a sustainable and weather-resistant way, the agency added.
Ms Siu said: “The race to divorce meat production from industrial animal agriculture is on and nations that follow Singapore’s lead will be able to reap the benefits as the entire world shifts to this new and better way of farming. make meat “.
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