Singapore has approved the sale of lab-grown chicken product developed by US-based tech company Eat Beyond. According to the company, Singapore is the first government to allow the sale of cultured meat. Patrick Morris, CEO of Eat Beyond, said cultured meat uses cellular agriculture technology. Producing cultured meat does not require any slaughter of animals. Lab-grown meat is more humane and sustainable and does not need large amounts of land as traditional agriculture does.
"The end product is very similar, but it is made without the vast inputs and negative externalities associated with modern factory farming," he explained.
Morris added that "Singapore's small geographic footprint and advanced economy have made it a hotbed for cellular agriculture and food tech innovation".
But now that the company has passed Singapore's regulatory hurdle, the next challenge is to work out how to reduce the cost of production. "It is currently still very expensive to produce these products," Morris said. However, he is optimistic that the company will meet this challenge this as well.
Eat Beyond's portfolio in Singapore also includes TurtleTree Labs and SingCell. TurtleTree develops 'clean' milk using cell-based methods. Meanwhile, SingCell offers a proprietary platform to enable alternative meat companies to create scalable processes for 'clean' meat manufacturing.
(Image from Unsplash)
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