Singapore, the tiny island nation with limited agricultural land, is taking giant strides in embracing revolutionary food technologies to achieve its ambitious ’30 by 30′ plan – an initiative to locally produce 30% of the nation’s nutritional needs by 2030. The spearhead of this effort lies in innovative food-tech developments, namely, cultivated meats and precision fermentation.
Dining at Huber’s Butchery in Singapore, you could find yourself savoring a chicken skewer unlike any other – a meat grown in a laboratory. The process entails painless extraction of cells from a live chicken, which are then replicated multiple times in a bioreactor, a device similar to a fermentation tank. This chicken, once nothing more than a “pinkish viscous slush,” takes on the familiar taste and texture of poultry meat we consume daily, only this meat never required a live chicken nor an egg.
Singapore became the world’s first country to approve the sale of cultivated meat, greenlighting California-based company Eat Just’s Good Meat product in December 2020. The USA followed suit in June 2023, permitting the sale of Eat Just and Upside Foods’ cultivated chicken. The novel approach provides an efficient, environmentally friendly, and humane alternative to conventional animal farming, which is currently responsible for up to 20% of all human-made greenhouse gas emissions.
However, cultivated meats are only one component of Singapore’s food-tech revolution. Precision fermentation is another innovation shaping the country’s food industry. This method involves programming micro-organisms to produce complex organic molecules, such as proteins. Perfect Day, a US-based company, has used precision fermentation to create animal-free dairy products, offering a more sustainable and inclusive option for those with lactose intolerance or dietary restrictions.
Despite the cost challenges and varying public opinions on laboratory-produced food, Singapore’s bold strides in food technology represent a promising solution to meet the increasing global demand for meat. The nation’s commitment to sustainability is echoed in the advancements of other Asia-based companies such as Avant Meats, Wildtype, Shiok Meats, Mosa Meat, Aleph Farms, and IntegriCulture, each specializing in different cultivated meat products.
In a world grappling with environmental challenges and food security issues, Singapore’s adoption of cultivated meats and precision fermentation signifies a critical shift towards a more sustainable food ecosystem. As the country continues to drive innovation in food technology, it offers a glimpse of the potential future of global food production, one where technology plays a vital role in nourishing the planet.
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