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By Jessica Singh ('22)
Fresh out of the lab! Get your crispy, crunchy... chicken bites? A restaurant in Singapore will be the first to sell lab-grown chicken. The Singapore Food Agency granted American company “Eat Just” the approval and they will be able to sell their cultured “chicken bites”.
Most vegetarian and vegan food items made as a meat substitute are plant-based, but, with cultured meat, scientists produce real meat without harming animals. This process of cultured meat might just be the solution to the concerns with animal rights and safety.
The process of culturing meat is actually quite interesting. Scientists first harvest muscle cells from an animal, which is completely harmless to the animal. After this, the cells are cultivated to produce more muscle tissue, as the majority of the meat we eat today is muscles. Then, the cells grow into strands and eventually combined into… perhaps a burger if these were cow cells, or chicken bites if these were chicken cells. This burger is prepared exactly as a burger would be, the only difference is that neither the cow nor the environment were harmed in making it!
Fresh "chicken?"
Courtesy of Eat Just.
Courtesy of Eat Just.
The technology for culturing meat isn’t something new. In fact, scientists have been experimenting with this for almost 20 years, starting with NASA in 2001. Previously, in 2013 at a London news conference, tasters tried the world’s first cultured hamburger. However, the tasters reported that it lacked texture and fat. Additionally, this burger at the time was very costly―$280,000. Since this event, scientists have been hard at work solving these issues and trying to get this meat on the market.
Now that this meat has been approved in Singapore and may be approved in the US soon. Would you be willing to try it?
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