Singapore Becomes The First Country To Sell Engineered Chicken Meat

JAKARTA - Singapore residents can immediately taste the engineered chicken cultivated in the laboratory. This is because the company that makes it, Eat Just, has obtained a sales permit by the Singapore authorities.

Quoting Channel News Asia, Monday, December 21, it is likely this engineered meat will be the first to be sold globally, the Singapore Food Agency said. Chicken meat is formed from the results of development in the laboratory using animal cells.

San Francisco-based Eat Just said no antibiotics were used in its products. The company also added that safety tests found chicken raised in its laboratory to have a very low microbiological content and to be significantly cleaner than traditional poultry.

"The analysis also shows that the farmed chicken has a high protein content, a diverse amino acid composition, has healthy monounsaturated fats and is a rich source of minerals," said Eat Just. The company admits that it took scientists, product developers and regulatory experts months to record the production process for farmed chickens.

Eat Just said it took months for a team of scientists, product developers and regulatory experts to record the production process of farmed chickens.

"The company documents the purity, identity and stability of the chicken cells during the manufacturing process, as well as a detailed description of the manufacturing process which shows that the cultivated chickens being harvested meet strict quality control and food safety monitoring systems," said Eat Just.

The chickens raised in this laboratory are produced at the Center for Food Resources and Innovation, a food research facility jointly managed by Singapore Polytechnic and Enterprise Singapore.

"Singapore has long been a pioneer in various innovations, from information technology to biology, to now leading the world in building healthier and safer food systems," said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just as he explained why Singapore was chosen. as the first location for launching its chicken products.

"I believe our regulatory approval for farmed meat will be a first of many in Singapore and in countries around the world."

Founded in 2011, Eat Just announced in October a partnership with private equity firm Proterra Investment Partners Asia to build a plant-based protein plant in Singapore. The company started developing farmed chickens using animal cells in 2016.

To make good chicken, Eat Just uses a small amount of cells taken from poultry. The cells are then provided with nutrients such as amino acids, carbohydrates, minerals, fats and vitamins. From there, the cells grow into flesh at high speed using a bioreactor.

From start to finish, the process takes about 14 days to make cultivated chickens. This time is shorter than traditional chickens, which take about 45 days to move from chicks to chicks ready for slaughter. Eat Just has manufacturing facilities in northern California and Singapore to manufacture these products.