A U.S. startup will manufacture and sell its lab-grown chicken meat in Singapore, Reuters reported.
Beyond Meat Burger packages available for purchase in a Whole Foods store in San Francisco bay area. Company not affiliated with firm mentioned in this story. By Sundry Photography. Shutterstock.
CEO of the startup Eat Just, Josh Tetrick, said the lab-grown meat will be sold as nuggets and priced comparable to real chicken meat, Reuters reported. It will happen “in the very near term,” he said, according to Reuters.
The global meat substitutes market is expected to be valued at about $3.5 billion in 2026 compared to $1.6 billion in 2019, according to MarketsandMarkets, a market research and consulting firm. (RELATED: Impossible Foods Burgers Available In 600 Sobeys Stores Across Canada)
“Clean” meat created in a lab comes from animal muscle cells, reported Reuters. Even though companies including Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods and Quorn have popularized plant-based substitutes to traditional meat, “clean” or “cultured” meat is still in its beginning stages due to high production costs, according to Reuters.
While Singapore only produces about 10 percent of its food, it has plans to have more high-tech farming and new means of food production, reported Reuters.
“I would imagine what will happen is the U.S., Western Europe and others will see what Singapore has been able to do, the rigors of the framework that they put together. And I would imagine that they will try to use it as a template to put their own framework together,” he said in an interview, according to Reuters.