Singapore approves sale of lab-grown chicken

Singapore granted regulatory approval to San Francisco start-up Eat Just Inc. to sell its laboratory-grown chicken there, thereby becoming the first country to allow the sale of cultured meat.

Created from cultured chicken cells, the cultured meat will be an ingredient in chicken bites.

The cultured meat, created in a bioreactor, has a high protein content and is a rich source of minerals.

According to Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just, chicken bites will debut in a Singapore restaurant but would expand into the country's dining and retail establishments. It would be priced the same as premium chicken.

Eat Just plans to sell the product under the GOOD Meat brand and hopes to expand sales of cultured meat, including cultured beef, to the US and Western Europe.

The company also has a range of non-animal products, including Just Egg, made with mung beans.

Despite a pandemic-induced global economic turmoil, plant-based protein manufacturer Impossible Foods received funding of about half a billion dollars, mostly coming from Asian investors.

Meanwhile, California-based Beyond Meat unveiled a plant-based minced "pork" to be sold in China.