INTHEBLACK February/March 2024 - Magazine - Page 43
AT A GLANCE
Lab-grown meat is already
available to consumers in
Singapore and the US.
Obstacles to global growth
include cost, scaling and
consumer acceptance.
The “green” credentials of
cultivated meat can only be
confirmed once production
reaches industrial scale.
Cultivated meat holds great promise for food
security, animal welfare and, potentially, the
environment. The big question is, are enough
consumers willing to eat it?
Words Susan Muldowney
Singapore’s commitment to innovation
was on display – and on the menu – at the 2022
United Nations Climate Change Conference,
COP27, held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
At a series of events co-hosted by the
Singapore Government, food-tech start-up
GOOD Meat served guests chicken, but not
as they knew it.
The chicken had not been farmed. It had
been grown in a Singapore laboratory and
is an example of “cultivated meat”, which
has been available for commercial sale in the
city-state since 2020.
As it is produced from animal cells,
cultivated meat looks, smells and, by most
accounts, tastes, just like the “real thing”.
Proponents point to its animal welfare
benefits, as well as its ability to shore up food
security for a growing global population.
However, lab-grown meat must first
overcome obstacles around scaling, funding
and consumer acceptance.
APPETITE FOR INNOVATION
Cultivating meat in a lab involves a biopsy
to remove animal cells from a live animal,
then nurturing the cells in a bioreactor, which
simulates the conditions in which they would
normally grow.
Cells are bathed in temperature-controlled,
nutrient-rich broth and grown on a “scaffold”
of edible materials to provide texture and
structure as cells replicate.
In June 2023, the US became the second
place in the world to approve cultivated meat
for sale when it gave the “green light” to
two California-based companies, UPSIDE
Foods and GOOD Meat. Meanwhile, Food
Standards Australia New Zealand is currently
considering an application from cultivated
meat company Vow to approve its products for
commercial sale.
Since 2016, cultivated meat companies
have attracted approximately US$2.78 billion
(A$4.28 billion) in funding. In Asia-Pacific,
they raised more capital in 2022 than in all
prior years combined.
There are several reasons for this growth.
With the global population predicted to
grow to 10 billion in the next three decades,
attention is shifting to secure sustainable food
sources. Meeting net-zero emissions by 2050
will also require reducing the food industry’s
carbon footprint.
Food production is a significant
contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and
animal-based foods are responsible for about
twice the emissions of plant-based ones.
“More than 56 per cent of the world’s
habitable land is used for agriculture and, of
that, 75 per cent is used for animal agriculture,
either in grazing animals or in growing feed
to give to animals,” says Dr Simon Eassom,
executive director of Food Frontier, an
independent think tank on alternative proteins
in Australia and New Zealand.
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