Heard of the new approval by Singapore Food Agency to sell lab grown chicken in the country? Not sure what cultured chicken actually means and whether it is safe for consumption? Read on to find out more about what lab grown meat exactly is and how eating it at local restaurants in future may just be the new norm!
What is cultured chicken
Cultured meat is basically lab grown meat, made from animal cells. First, a biopsy is done to extract a single chicken cell from a fresh slab of meat. Upon identification of vitamins, amino acids and vitamins within the cell, the company will then manufacture meat in a bioreactor.
Eat Just, a Californian company who developed the cultured product, has gained approval to start selling its cultured meat in Singapore! We are now the first country in the world to ever have lab-grown meat on menus.
Advantages of consuming cultured meat
Just one year alone, almost 50 billion chickens are slaughtered for food. Eat Just CEO, Josh Tetrick, stated that with the new product, we could ‘still have high-quality meat without killing an animal’. Forests do not have to be torn down too, reducing the exacerbation of climate change.
For the vegetarian or vegan friends out there who don’t consume meat because of animal ethics or environmental issues, this cultured meat will not pose a problem for you guys!
With this cultivated chicken, you can enjoy all the protein and nutrients as usual without causing deforestation, food safety risks or animal welfare issues.
How our dietary lifestyles could be affected
Very soon, you might start seeing cultured chicken dishes in restaurants! It will first be sold in a single restaurant in Singapore, with an intermediate scaling to other 15 restaurants in the near future. However, details have not been given out as to where and when it will be sold yet. More updates will be given once details are released!
You are probably wondering: how does it taste? Tetrick has described it to ‘taste exactly like chicken’. So put aside your worries and try it out for yourself next time!
Overall, cultured meat is still a relatively unknown concept in the food industry. It will soon be infused into Singapore's food menus - will you be willing to try them?
