Food and Water

This country has become the first in the world to approve the sale of lab-grown meat

A fillet of lab-grown cultured chicken developed by Eat Just is pictured in this handout photo. Eat Just, Inc./Handout via REUTERS  THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY.   NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. - RC2REK9OOZGA

Lab-grown meat from Eat Just has been approved for sale in Singapore. Image: via REUTERS

John Geddie
Deputy Bureau Chief, Reuters
Aradhana Aravindan
Reporter, Reuters
Share:
Our Impact
What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Food and Water?
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Food Security is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:

Singapore

  • Singapore has become the first country in the world to approve the sale of lab-grown meat.
  • U.S. start-up Eat Just has been granted permission to sell its lab-grown chicken in the country.
  • The so-called 'clean meat' is grown from animal muscle cells but at very high production costs.
  • Demand for alternatives to regular meat has surged in recent years, due to growing concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment.

Singapore has given U.S. start-up Eat Just the greenlight to sell its lab-grown chicken meat, in what the firm says is the world’s first regulatory approval for so-called clean meat that does not come from slaughtered animals.

Have you read?

The meat, to be sold as nuggets, will be priced at premium chicken prices when it first launches in a restaurant in Singapore “in the very near term”, co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick said.

Demand for alternatives to regular meat is surging due to concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment. Plant-based substitutes, popularised by the likes of Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods and Quorn, increasingly feature on supermarket shelves and restaurant menus.

But so-called clean or cultured meat, which is grown from animal muscle cells in a lab, is still at a nascent stage given high production costs.

Singapore, a city state of 5.7 million, currently only produces about 10% of its food but has set out ambitious plans reut.rs/3obXpm4 to raise that over the next decade by supporting high-tech farming and new means of food production.

Singapore Future of Food Agriculture, Food and Beverage
The so-called 'clean meat' is grown from animal muscle cells. Image: Eat Just Inc.

Josh Tetrick said the San Francisco-based firm was also talking to U.S. regulators but that Singapore was a “good bit” ahead of the United States.

“I would imagine what will happen is the U.S., Western Europe and others will see what Singapore has been able to do, the rigours of the framework that they put together. And I would imagine that they will try to use it as a template to put their own framework together,” he said in an interview.

The Singapore Food Agency said it had reviewed data relating to process, manufacturing control and safety testing before granting approval.

Eat Just said it will manufacture the product in Singapore, where it also plans to start making a mung bean-based egg substitute it has been selling commercially in the United States.

Founded in 2011, Eat Just counts Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing and Singapore state investor Temasek among its backers. It has raised more than $300 million since its inception, Tetrick said, and is valued at roughly $1.2 billion.

It is targeting profitability at an operating income level before the end of 2021 and hopes to go public soon after, he added.

Globally more than two dozen firms are testing lab-grown fish, beef and chicken, hoping to break into an unproven segment of the alternative meat market, which Barclays estimates could be worth $140 billion by 2029.

Competitors have also attracted some eye-catching investors.

U.S.-based Memphis Meats raised funds this year in a deal led by Japan’s SoftBank Group and Temasek, and also counts Bill Gates and Richard Branson among its backers.

Singapore’s Shiok Meats, which aims to become the first company to sell lab-grown shrimp, is backed by Henry Soesanto of Philippines’ Monde Nissin Corp, which also owns Quorn.

Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Related topics:
Food and WaterIndustries in Depth
Share:
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

Water demand is rising fast. Yet few realize how it impacts the climate crisis

Ghinwa Chammas

October 3, 2024

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum