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Update 17 May 2024: After a promising beginning, is Singapore's cultivated meat industry on the way to the slaughterhouse?
What is next for the nascent industry that seemed off to such a good start?
It was June 2022, and the lab-grown meat industry looked like it had a sizzling future. The largest cultivated chicken meat facility in Asia broke ground in Singapore, with a 30,000 sq ft complex at Bedok Food City, set to produce "tens of thousands of pounds" of meat a year.
The company behind this audacious venture was US-based Eat Just, who had plans to sell lab-grown chicken meat under the label Good Meat. Eat Just representatives were joined by Singapore officials, including Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu, at the groundbreaking ceremony. Indeed, in October 2022, the government announced it had set aside fresh funding of S$165 million (US$122 million) to accelerate R&D in sustainable urban food production, future foods, and food safety science and innovation. This was over and above an initial S$144 million of research funding in 2020.
Singapore was also the first country to approve the sale of lab-grown meat, with Huber's Butchery in Dempsey Hill being the only restaurant in the world selling lab-grown meat back in early 2023. In March this year, Eat Just put its lab-grown meat production at the Bedok facility on hold, the Straits Times reported. Huber’s Butchery stopped offering the product in December last year. In the same month, it was reported that Singapore-based lab-grown seafood startups Shiok Meats and Umami Bioworks were merging. And it is not just here that the industry is slowing down. A New York Times article in February detailed the decline of the industry – one which had a bright start with investors pouring over US$3 billion into the industry between 2016 and 2022.
Cultivated meat producer Eat Just pauses operations in Singapore
Eat Just’s facility in Bedok Food City was shuttered when The Straits Times visited it on Feb 29. ST PHOTO: SHABANA BEGUM
The world’s first cultivated meat product was approved for sale in Singapore in 2020 to much fanfare. But production of the cell-based meat by Californian firm Eat Just has been put on pause, The Straits Times understands. Eat Just’s cultivated chicken products – sold under the label Good Meat – are not available at Huber’s Bistro, which was previously the only restaurant offering the novel food. The Good Meat production facility in Bedok, initially slated to open in the third quarter of 2023, is shuttered, ST checks showed.
When queried, an Eat Just spokeswoman said: “We’re evaluating various processing conditions, the unit economics, and a larger strategic approach to producing in Asia.” Huber’s Bistro stopped offering the kebab skewers and chicken salads made with Good Meat in December 2023. Its marketing manager said Huber’s will have the product on the menu again when supply is ready and expects to resume its offering of the cultivated chicken “very soon”. It had previously been selling the dishes since January 2023.
Meanwhile, Eat Just’s $61 million cultivated meat manufacturing facility in Bedok appears not to be in operation. The company held a ground-breaking event for the facility in 2022. Timeline:
- December 2020: SFA approves the sale of a cultured meat product – bite-size chicken from Eat Just – after it is deemed safe for consumption. It is the first regulatory authority in the world to approve sale of such meat.
- January 2021: The cell-based chicken bites are first served in a members’ club in Robertson Quay known as 1880. Subsequently, the novel meat is sold on delivery platform foodpanda and at a few hawker stalls.
- March 2022: Eat Just announces that it will build a plant-protein factory in Pioneer. Alternative protein products that would be manufactured include bottled yolk made from mung bean protein and turmeric that can be scrambled and tastes like real eggs.
- June 2022: Eat Just breaks ground on its upcoming 30,000 sq ft facility – about half the size of a football field – in food industry hub Bedok Food City. It is expected to be operational by the third quarter of 2023.
- December 2022: Eat Just announces that dishes made from its cultivated chicken, such as cultivated chicken kebab and fried cultivated chicken skin salad, will be offered at meat products producer and supplier Huber’s Butchery in Dempsey from January 2023. Eat Just said then it is hoping to get approval from SFA for cultivated beef in 2023.
- January 2023: ST reports that Eat Just has received approval from SFA to produce serum-free cultivated meat, a move that would see its laboratory-made chicken produced more cheaply and sustainably.
- June 2023: The United States approves the sale of cultured meat from Good Meat and Upside Foods to consumers, making it the second country, after Singapore, to allow cultivated meat sales.
- December 2023: Huber’s Bistro in Dempsey pauses its offer of Good Meat chicken. In 2024, it told ST it is expecting to resume the offer “very soon”.
Largest plant-protein factory in Singapore to open within the next two years
The humble mung bean - used in the old school dessert tau suan - will be the key ingredient in the largest plant-protein factory to come to Singapore within the next two years.
Eat Just, the Californian start-up responsible for the alternative protein factory, said that the bean can be transformed into a protein isolate, which is a main ingredient of alternative protein products manufactured here. The products include bottled yolk that can be scrambled and cell-grown meat products currently being manufactured in Singapore.
To be built on a 2.7ha plot in Pioneer, the factory will contribute thousands of tonnes of plant-based protein every year, strengthening Singapore's food security.
Eat Just CEO On Making Alternative Meat Mainstream
Eat Just chicken / Image Credit: Eat Just
Eat Just Inc, a San Francisco-based startup that primarily manufactures plant-based eggs has been making headlines recently for manufacturing lab-grown chicken and getting the green light from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) to sell it to the masses in Singapore.
On December 19, Eat Just debuted the world’s first sale of its cultured meat for human consumption to 1880, a private social club in Singapore, which received raving reviews from customers. Eat Just’s customer survey conducted after the event showed that the majority of the attendees found that their products’ taste to be equivalent to conventional chicken meat and that they were open to substitute their chicken consumption for cultured chicken.
Investor and public confidence seem to herald a bright and promising future for this revolutionary food company, which is backed by a slew of big investors including Temasek Holdings, Qatar’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, Charlesbank Capital Partners, Li Ka-shing and Vulcan Capital.
How This S'pore Food Tech Startup Hatched Asia's First Plant-Based Whole Egg Substitute
OnlyEg (top) and chicken egg (bottom) / Image Credit: Float Foods
While most businesses were badly impacted by COVID-19, the pandemic presented a business opportunity for Vinita Choolani instead. Vinita is currently the co-founder and CEO of Float Foods.
Prior to starting up the food tech startup, Vinita helped to build Singapore-based women’s healthcare company INEX INNOVATE, which was valued at US$72 million in 2019. She is also the co-founder and board member of Project Smile, a not-for-profit initiative that offers financial assistance to women in Singapore with a focus on imparting skill sets for sustainable careers and eventual economic independence.
“I am passionate about building meaningful startups, technology and innovation, and pulling all these levels to create businesses that will change lives for the better.”
Plant-based meat alternatives
Plant based meat. What may instantly come to mind at these words are things like blocks of tofu and tempeh, canned chickpeas and dried green lentils — the staples of the many vegan kitchens that just don’t seem to capture everything that meat actually is.
Because, well, plant based meat is much more expansive than the raw legumes which, as exciting as they are, are not so appealing to the modern omnivore — or, not as appealing as a nice beef patty.
Plant based meat is anything that is a substitute for the flavours and nutrition of animal meat that is derived from plants or fungi. So yes, it does encompass such raw legumes, but it also extends to much more. Key Takeaways:
- Plant based meat is anything that is a substitute for the flavours and nutrition of animal meat that is derived from plants or fungi.
- It uses things like legume fractions, starches, fats, and recombinant proteins (as well as other additives) to simulate the nutritional and sensory properties of meat.
- These ingredients are processed using shearing and extrusion in order to replicate the fibrous texture of meat.
- It has massive implications for agriclture’s environmental footprint as well as food security, health and animal welfare.
- The industry is rapidly expanding with investment on many fronts and the technology is popular amongst vegans/vegetarians and omnivores alike.
Cell-cultured or lab-grown meat
The Singapore Food Agency is allowing Eat Just's cultured chicken to be sold here after an evaluation process which looked at factors such as the product's manufacturing process and toxicity of ingredients, as well as whether the final product meets the standards in food regulation
Menus here could soon feature chicken grown in facilities such as bioreactors instead of farms, as the authorities have deemed one such product safe for consumption.
Regulatory approvals are in place for a particular cultured chicken, making it the first time in the world that cultured meat products will go on sale. These products are made by culturing animal cells instead of by slaughter and are not yet available for sale and consumption anywhere else.
The cultured chicken bites will be manufactured in Singapore by Californian start-up Eat Just, said its chief executive Josh Tetrick.
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