Singapore has become the first country to allow the sale of cultured meat. Bloomberg’s Mark Cudmore has a taste test of Eat Just's lab-grown chicken that’s never seen a farm or factory.
After sampling two dishes at restaurant 1880 in Singapore's Robertson Quay, Mark says, "I think that I could quickly prefer this to normal chicken, even if I think there's a slight difference, because this is a very nice texture and presumably they can make it consistently good because it's lab grown."
He adds that there's a slight difference compared to real meat.
"If you'd served me in a restaurant, never mentioned anything about it being lab grown, I never, ever would have noticed. So, of course, it's as close as you need it to be in reality. But if this is healthier, better for the environment, just as tasty, do I care that it looks slightly different? And bear in mind, I'm comparing it to antibiotic-fed chicken in the first place that's heavily processed. Who am I to say that that's better?"
Lab-meat startups have grown from a handful in 2016 to at least 60 now, according to consultant Lux Research Inc. The sector wants to make production more humane and environmentally sustainable and has attracted record venture-capital funding this year.
There are still lots of challenges -- from cutting high costs and making large-scale production feasible to winning regulatory approval. With cultivated meat costing $400 to $2,000 a kilogram (2.2 pounds) to make, there’s still a long way until prices compete with conventional meats, according to Lux.
“Economies of scale are likely to help lower the cost in years to come,” said Harini Venkataraman, a Lux analyst in Amsterdam. “That is why these pilot plants are such important milestones.”
The cell-based meat market is projected to reach $140 billion in the next decade, according to forecasts compiled by Blue Horizon Corp. AG, which invests in alternative proteins.
Startups announcing test plants include Memphis Meats Inc., which has received backing from Richard Branson and Tyson Foods Inc., as well as cell-based seafood maker BlueNalu Inc. Aleph Farms Ltd., which this week hosted Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to taste its beefsteak, is also working on a pilot plant. Companies such as BioTech Foods, SuperMeat and Eat Just have already started testing sites.
“It’s not a question whether this is feasible,” said Ido Savir, CEO of SuperMeat, which has started a test kitchen for cultured chicken in Israel. “It’s a question of how long it will take us to go from a pilot setting, where we’re at, to a commercial scale. Things are becoming very exciting now.”
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