Is Lab-Grown Meat Available for Consumption Yet?

Less than a decade ago, there were only a couple of startups willing to embark on cultivated meat production. Today, however, there are about a hundred of them, if not more, invested in cell-based meat production, whether directly or indirectly. Several statistic reports have also projected that lab-grown meat is indeed the meat of the future and more and more meat lovers are beginning to keep an open mind about consuming the laboratory-manufactured product.

Already, a specific finding has reported that by 2025, the cultivated meat industry may be selling at comparable prices to conventional meat. Matt Ball, former Media Relations Specialist at Good Food Institute agrees that the "overall cost of clean meat will continue to fall, just as it has since 2013." He claims that such a trend is relatively standard for new technologies, and purchasing costs will even out over time.

For an innovation with quite a number of agreement disparities by different people, the governments of most countries are taking their time to approve its consumption. While research into the production and possible consumption of lab-grown meat has been ongoing in key countries like the US, UK, and Israel, several other countries of the world have been silent about it. Other countries like France have placed a restriction on its consumption while some other countries are yet to permit consumption.

What Countries have Approved Cell-Based Meat?

In 2020, Singapore became the first country to approve cell-based meat for consumption. The Asian country has been leading in laboratory meat innovation as it has supported the growth of cultivated meat companies like Eat Just. Other Asian countries like Israel have approved test sales of the meat product.

In the European Union, the lab-grown meat industry has been having quite a hard time establishing its feet. Regulatory measures are more structured with the government and concerned agencies poised on ethical debates like the true definition of meat and the claimed benefits of cell-based meat. Earlier this year though, the European Commission approved the request for the collection of approval signatures from European citizens on the shift from slaughter animal husbandry to cellular agriculture.

For as much as we know at this time, Singapore remains the only country to have approved the consumption of cultivated meat. Nevertheless, countries like the US have developments that point towards the possibility of having the meat for consumption in a matter of years or even months from now. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) jointly regulate the cultivated meat industry and the production of its consumables.

Conclusion

The approval of cultured meat for commercial sale across the world seems inevitable in the long run. As world shifters like the US, The EU, and Israel finalize regulatory measures on the consumption of cell-based meat, it will only be a matter of time before strings of countries around the world follow suit in the embrace of lab-grown meat. Indeed, the meat of the future is here!