FUTURE FOOD: LAB-GROWN MEATS

Cultivated in labs rather than raised on farms, cell-based meats could disrupt agriculture as we know it.

The global plant-based meat market was valued at US$5.06 billion (S$7.2 billion) in 2021, and is predicted to grow by 19.3 per cent annually to reach US$24.8 billion by 2030, according to market research firm Grand View Research.

Concurrent to that, the global market for lab-grown, cell-based or cultivated meat, as it is variously called, could reach US$25 billion by 2030, according to consultants McKinsey & Company.

Together, that is still a small slice of the 2030 projected US$1.4-trillion meat market, but food companies — from start-ups to multinational giants — are racing to bring their products to market.

In December 2020, Singapore was the first country in the world to allow the sale of cultured meat when the Singapore Food Agency approved a lab-cultured chicken meat substitute product by GOOD Meat from US start-up Eat Just. The firm is now building the largest cultured meat facility in Asia at JTC Bedok Food City, which will have some 50 researchers, scientists, and engineers.

Labs are not just growing chicken. While Eat Just is working on growing Wagyu beef, Avant — the first cultivated meat company in Greater China — is developing fish products, including fish maw. Start-ups around the world are also creating eggs and imitating cow’s milk.

Celebrity chefs are also supporting cultured meats. Dominique Crenn, who won the prestigious Icon Award from the World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2021, plans to become the first chef in the US to offer lab-grown meat. She has partnered with UPSIDE Foods, a food technology company in Berkeley, California, and will serve its cell-based chicken at her three Michelin-starred, San Franciscobased Atelier Crenn — once the cultured meat is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture.

According to Argentine chef Francis Mallman, who appeared in the first season of Netflix’s Chef’s Table and is nicknamed “Carnivore King”, we will no longer be eating animals in 30 years, and that he plans to serve cultured meat at one of his several restaurants in the future.