SINGAPORE — The world's first cultivated meat product was approved for sale in Singapore in 2020 to much fanfare. But production of the cell-based meat by Californian firm Eat Just has been put on pause, The Straits Times understands.

Eat Just's cultivated chicken products — sold under the label Good Meat — are not available at Huber's Bistro, which was previously the only restaurant offering the novel food. The Good Meat production facility in Bedok, initially slated to open in the third quarter of 2023, is shuttered, ST checks showed.

When queried, an Eat Just spokeswoman said: "We're evaluating various processing conditions, the unit economics, and a larger strategic approach to producing in Asia."

Huber's Bistro stopped offering the kebab skewers and chicken salads made with Good Meat in December 2023.

Its marketing manager said Huber's will have the product on the menu again when supply is ready, and expects to resume its offering of the cultivated chicken "very soon".

It had previously been selling the dishes since January 2023.

Meanwhile, Eat Just's $61 million cultivated meat manufacturing facility in Bedok appears not to be in operation. The company held a ground-breaking event for the facility in 2022.

When ST visited Bedok Food City — the industrial premises that house the 30,000 sq ft Good Meat facility — on Feb 29, workers from other firms in the building said the US company's two units on the ground floor are shut and were rarely opened for about six months. Boxes of air-purifying equipment sat outside one of the closed units, and benches were piled outside the other.

ST understands that a separate commercial manufacturing facility which previously produced Eat Just's cultivated chicken products is also no longer producing for them.

Cultivated meat refers to meat products that are made from growing animal cells in a bioreactor — similar to the vats used in brewing beer — instead of slaughtering actual chickens.

This is considered to be a more sustainable meat production method as large volumes can be produced involving less land and labour.

Asked about the delay in the opening of the Bedok facility, Eat Just's spokeswoman said there is "no firm timeline" on when it will be operational.

She added that the firm has "produced and paused and produced and paused" since it started selling the items. "We're planning to produce at least twice as much in Singapore this year than any year before."

Apart from cultivated meat, Eat Just's plant-based egg business here also appears to be at a standstill.

In March 2022, Eat Just announced that it would be building a plant-protein factory in Pioneer to make items such as liquid eggs, made of mung bean protein and turmeric. At a ground-breaking ceremony then in Pioneer View, the company said the factory would be built within two years.

However, when asked about updates on the factory, the firm's spokeswoman said on March 1: "We are not building a facility in Pioneer."

The current pause in production in Singapore comes amid overseas reports of legal and financial woes confronting the US firm.

Eat Just is in a legal dispute with a former partner over alleged unpaid invoices, news outlet Wired reported in early February.

In September 2023, Bloomberg reported that Eat Just is facing a US$100 million (S$134 million) lawsuit from its bioreactor manufacturer and that the firm had dismissed about 40 employees in a cost-cutting move.

Eat Just made international headlines in 2020 when its chicken bites became the world's first cultivated meat product to receive regulatory approval for sale in Singapore.

Following the approval, Eat Just first sold its cultivated chicken nuggets at a members' club in Robertson Quay known as 1880 in early 2021. It was then sold on delivery platform foodpanda and at a few hawker stalls on a limited basis.

While a potential alternative to traditionally farmed meat, cultivating meat for consumption is still in its early stages.

According to a 2021 report by management consulting firm McKinsey, the market for cultivated meat could reach US$25 billion by 2030. But the report noted that there are challenges to realising this potential, including getting consumers to trust the product, and making it affordable and on a par with the cost of conventional meat.

The high cost of the culture medium is one obstacle to the scalability of cultivated meat, said Professor William Chen, director of Nanyang Technological University's food science and technology programme. Culture medium refers to the nutrient broth that the animal cells are immersed in so that they multiply into tissue.

Prof Chen added that it is also costly to invest in the research and development to replace bovine serum — which is conventionally used as a growth supplement — in the medium with kill-free alternatives. Foetal bovine serum comes from the blood of unborn cow foetuses, which makes it ethically controversial and expensive.

Prof Chen also added that producing cultivated meat is highly energy-consuming, and renewable energy sources such as solar energy should be tapped to ensure it is sustainable in the long run.

Despite these challenges, he believes that the industry is in its infancy and still has potential to provide another viable meat alternative.

"These are new technologies. We should give them space to grow. There are bound to be setbacks here and there, but this is not the end of the story," said Prof Chen.

ST has contacted the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) for comment.

Timeline

December 2020: SFA approves the sale of a cultured meat product — bite-size chicken from Eat Just — after it is deemed safe for consumption. It is the first regulatory authority in the world to approve sale of such meat.

January 2021: The cell-based chicken bites are first served in a members' club in Robertson Quay known as 1880. Subsequently, the novel meat is sold on delivery platform foodpanda and at a few hawker stalls.

March 2022: Eat Just announces that it will build a plant-protein factory in Pioneer. Alternative protein products that would be manufactured include bottled yolk made from mung bean protein and turmeric that can be scrambled and tastes like real eggs.

June 2022: Eat Just breaks ground on its upcoming 30,000 sq ft facility — about half the size of a football field — in food industry hub Bedok Food City. It is expected to be operational by the third quarter of 2023.

December 2022: Eat Just announces that dishes made from its cultivated chicken, such as cultivated chicken kebab and fried cultivated chicken skin salad, will be offered at meat products producer and supplier Huber's Butchery in Dempsey from January 2023. Eat Just said then it is hoping to get approval from SFA for cultivated beef in 2023.

January 2023: ST reports that Eat Just has received approval from SFA to produce serum-free cultivated meat, a move that would see its laboratory-made chicken produced more cheaply and sustainably.

June 2023: The United States approves the sale of cultured meat from Good Meat and Upside Foods to consumers, making it the second country, after Singapore, to allow cultivated meat sales.

December 2023: Huber's Bistro in Dempsey pauses its offer of Good Meat chicken. In 2024, it told ST it is expecting to resume the offer "very soon".

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.