In conversations that discuss the role that meat should play in our diet, generally, someone will bring up the idea of lab-grown meat. This is meat that is grown for consumption, but minus the rest of the animal. The hope is that it would allow us to continue eating meat, without the ethical ramifications of animal welfare.
Such conversations invite much debate as to what lab meat would taste like or whether or not someone would even try it. At last, these debates can be put to rest. Singapore has approved the sale of lab-grown chicken.
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The US company Eat Just is producing the lab-grown meat.
The meat cells are grown in 1,200-liter bioreactors. The cells are biopsied from live animals , which means no animals are killed to create the meat. The grown meat is then combined with plant-based ingredients to create a chicken nugget. Currently, it costs significantly more to create one of these chicken nuggets than traditional chicken. But the company expects this to change once they can produce the lab-grown meat at scale.
Singapore has approved the sale of the lab-meat, but will consumers accept it?
Josh Tetrick, CEO of Eat Just, told The Guardian , “I think the approval is one of the most significant milestones in the food industry in the last handful of decades. It’s an open door and it’s up to us and other companies to take that opportunity. My hope is this leads to a world in the next handful of years where the majority of meat doesn’t require killing a single animal or tearing down a single tree.”
Eat Just is already known for their egg products.
Their eggs are made from mung beans. Mung beans are better known in their long white sprouted form, which we call bean sprouts. Eat Just spent five years researching the perfect plant-based protein to make their eggs. They found that mung bean protein best mimicked the same crumble texture you get from a real egg.
They plan to make their meat products both tasty and affordable.
The company is working on getting approval to sell their meat in other countries including the U.S. However, it is expected that they will face opposition from the US Cattlemen’s Association . For now, they plan to start small with one restaurant. They hope to build on that success and expand to more restaurants in the future. First, they need to build customer trust in their product. This means that we won’t be seeing lab-grown meat on our plates in North American soon. But, it is only a matter of time.
What do you think? Would you try a lab-grown chicken nugget? Let us know in the comments!
h/t: The Guardian
