Cultured Meat Is Currently Being Mass-Produced In Israel

Our objective is to make cultured meat affordable for everyone.

Israeli startup Future Meat Technologies has opened what it states is the first industrial-scale cultured meat manufacturing facility- a move designed to obtain lab-grown meat onto consumers’ plates finally.

“Our objective is to make cultured meat affordable for everyone,” CSO Yaakov Nahmias said in a press release, “while ensuring we generate delicious food that is both healthy and sustainable, assisting to safeguard the future of coming generations.”

Why it matters?

Demand for meat is bigger than ever before. However, the traditional means of producing it– by raising and slaughtering animals– is bad for the environment and perhaps unethical.

Plant-based meat alternatives can not perfectly match the taste and texture of real meat, so some carnivores are unwilling to switch to them. Cultured meat is molecularly identical to the type that comes from animals, though, making it an ideal sustainable, humane alternative.

The challenge

The cost of cultured meat has decreased dramatically since Dutch scientists revealed the first lab-grown burger in 2013.

Nonetheless, it still costs more than animal meat– and until manufacturers can obtain the price down, most people will prefer the more affordable of both options.

Cultured meat production

Future Meat’s new facility can produce more than 1,000 pounds of lab-grown chicken, pork, or lamb per day, and beef manufacturing is expected to join the mix soon.

By scaling up its cultured meat production to this level, Future Meat intends to reduce prices and tempt more people to try its sustainable meat.

“From the get-go, our main focus was around scaling up and reducing cost in order to get a commercially viable product,” chief executive officer Rom Kshuk said Bloomberg.

The cold water

Future Meat states it can now produce four ounces of cultured chicken breast for $3.90– a mind-boggling low price when you consider the 1st lab-grown burger cost $280,000.

Still, a farmed chicken breast costs 80% less than that per ounce, so it still has a huge price advantage. It also has the advantage of being available in grocery stores– Future Meat is still working to safeguard regulatory approval for its cultured meat.

Waiting game

So far, just one startup (Eat Just) has secured approval to sell its cultured meat, and also, that approval is in just one country (Singapore). Nonetheless, we could be seeing a multitude of cultured meat products hitting shelves soon.

Another Israeli company, Super meat, is offering taste tests to diners in a restaurant attached to its cultured meat manufacturing facility while it waits to hear back from regulators. Meanwhile, Upside Foods (previously Memphis Meats) hopes to safeguard FDA approval before the end of 2021.

Read the original article on Free Think.