Retail sales of lab-grown chicken are now underway in Singapore

The back-to-back bans on making or selling cultured meat in Florida and Alabama are being met around the world in Singapore.

That’s where GOOD Meat begins its first retail sale of cultured chicken, a product called GOOD Meat 3. It is retailed at Huber’s Butchery in Singapore under a partnership between GOOD Meat and Huber’s.

Previously, some of the sales of rarely raised meat in the United States took place at two high-end restaurants in San Francisco and Washington DC, but they were shut down.

GOOD Meat is the cultured meat division of the food technology company Eat Just Inc.

GOOD Meat announced on May 15 that for the first time ever, cultured meat will be sold at retail so shoppers can buy it and take it home to cook.

GOOD Meat and Huber’s Butchery are teaming up at the globally exclusive launch in Singapore to sell a new, lower-cost formulation that uses just 3 percent cultured chicken while retaining the same taste, texture and experience as conventional chicken.

This new product, GOOD Meat 3, is now available in the frozen section of Huber’s Butchery for the rest of 2024 and costs SGD7.20 for a 120 gram pack. That’s about $5.35 in US dollars, depending on the currency exchange.

The partners said GOOD Meat 3 was developed to meet strong consumer demand for cultured meat in Singapore and create opportunities for people to try it in the comfort of their own homes.

They say using a smaller percentage of cultured chicken in combination with plant-based proteins, which have always been used in GOOD Meat cultured chicken products, also helps reduce costs associated with cultured meat production, one of the key challenges in scaling up these developing countries. industry.

Consumer research on cultured meat shows that “tasting is believing,” which continues to be true for GOOD Meat 3. Sensory testing has provided exceptional feedback on things like taste, texture and appearance, a result of GOOD Meat’s patented manufacturing process and simple recipe vegetable proteins, cultured chicken and herbs that flavor the chicken.

“This is a historic day for our company, for the cultured meat industry and for Singaporeans who want to try GOOD Meat,” said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just, the parent company of GOOD Meat. “Before today, cultured meat was never available to ordinary people in stores, and now it is. This year we will sell more portions of farmed chicken than in any previous year. At the same time, we know there is much more work to prove that cultured meat can be made at scale, and we remain focused on that goal.”

After an extensive renovation, the GOOD Meat 3 is officially launched as part of Huber’s grand reopening. The outlet is known in Singapore and beyond as a leading manufacturer and supplier of high-quality meat products and has joined the country’s push for food innovation to boost food security.

“Having the latest version of the GOOD Meat 3 cultured chicken available to retail is another step in making cultured meat available to a wider audience,” said Andre Huber, Executive Director of Huber’s Pte Ltd. they want and experience how it fits into their home-cooked meals. We look forward to receiving feedback from our discerning customers so that we can work with GOOD Meat to continually improve the product.”

The retail sales announcement follows moves in the United States, where GOOD Meat is based, to limit or completely ban the production and sale of cultured meat. Earlier this month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that would criminalize the sale of cultured meat in that state, a move that threatens to limit consumer freedom and stifle innovation. In contrast, countries like Singapore and South Korea, which recently established a “regulation-free zone” to promote innovation for cultured meat and biotech companies, have embraced new food technologies that have the potential to address problems such as climate change, food security, and animal suffering.

Since 2020, when Singapore granted GOOD Meat the world’s first regulatory approval for cultured meat, GOOD Meat has been producing and selling its chicken in a campaign-style model, offering opportunities to try cultured chicken at fine dining restaurants, through food delivery apps, at pre-loved stalls, and of course in the Bistro of Huber’s Butchery.

Just over a year ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDFA) completed its pre-market review of foods made from cultured animal cells by GOOD Meat. FDA said the company uses animal cell culture technology to take living cells from chickens and grow the cells in a controlled environment to make the cultured animal cell food.

And the FDA had no more questions about it.

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