Following a previous news report saying that Singapore had approved the consumption of lab-grown chicken meat and becoming the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval for cell-cultured meat, we are soon to see it become available on a wider public scale.
On December 19, Californian food startup Eat Just debuted its lab-grown chicken meat (branded as Good Meat Cultured Chicken) at 1800 – an exclusive members-only eatery in Robertson Quay – in the form of breaded chicken nuggets.
After a four-day invited tasting event, the cell-cultured chicken will be sold at the restaurant as a two-dish combo from next month onwards – chicken and waffles on one plate, and chicken on a chinese steamed bun on the other – at S$23, said 1880 founder Marc Nicholson.
The bite-sized chicken pieces in both dishes come with a crisp battered exterior and a slightly softer texture than conventional chicken.
Mr Ng Yeen Chern, a director in TL Investments, was one of the diners who tried the cultured chicken.
He says: "The nugget really tasted like a nugget. If I close my eyes, I don't think I can tell the difference between the cell-based meat and real meat."
The cell-cultured chicken is currently only allowed by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) to be sold in its breaded, bite-sized form. The startup plans to seek approval from SFA to sell it in other forms, including as pieces of breast meat, said Eat Just’s chief executive Josh Tetrick.
At this point you might be wondering, what is cell-cultured meat?
As the name suggests, cells from living animals are extracted, and grown in specialized laboratories to produce, or 'cultivate' meat.
This reduces the carbon footprint that is normally linked to animal slaughter, and it also ensures that people get to eat what's technically real meat, and not just a vegan alternative.
The idea behind Eat Just's lab-grown chicken meat is sustainability and environmental preservation. The startup aims for its lab-grown products to help lower methane gas emissions that come from animal farming, and also reduce the destruction of forests to create such farms.
"For the first time, meat from real animals that hasn't required a single animal to be killed or a single tree to be cut down can be sold," said Eat Just CEO Josh Tetrick previously.
Tetrick is now putting the cell-cultured meat to trial at 1880 first, before deploying it to the mass market.
In terms of how much you can expect to pay, Tetrick says it should cost below the price of its traditional, slaughtered counterpart "in the years ahead", when that type of meat is more widely available.
For now, however, don't be surprised if you'll have to pay a slight premium.
What are your thoughts on cell-cultured meat? Will you be trying it when it's out in the mass market?