chicken nuggets

Singapore has become the first nation in the world to approve lab-grown meat for human consumption.

The Singapore Food Agency recently gave the green light for artificially-created chicken nuggets to be sold commercially, prompting many to hail the move as a game-changer. 

Josh Tetrick, founder of US company Eat Just, which will be producing the so-called ‘cultivated meat’, said: “I think the approval is one of the most significant milestones in the food industry in the last handful of decades.

“My hope is this leads to a world in the next handful of years where the majority of meat doesn’t require killing a single animal or tearing down a single tree.”

Cultivated meat is created from the cells of live animals, meaning traditional farming and slaughtering methods are no longer necessary.

The finished product is made up of 70% lab-grown meat and 30% plant-based ingredients such as mung bean protein.

However, it’s far from game over for the livestock industry.

Not only will consumer attitudes be a formidable obstacle, the production cost of cultivated meat will need to come down significantly before it has any chance of mass acceptance.

As recently as last year, Eat Just quoted a price of $50 USD per chicken nugget.