-KH News Desk
Meatable, a pioneer in cultured meat, has announced a cooperation with ESCO Aster, located in Singapore, the first and only commercially licensed cultivated meat producer in the world, in a move it claims would launch the introduction of produced pig products in Singapore. When Singaporean authorities approved the sale of cultured meat in 2020 and US business Eat Just obtained a license for its cell-based chicken products, they made history as the first to do so.
Singapore imports 90% of its food since it is a tiny country with limited arable land. Food security is a top concern for the government in an effort to restore this equilibrium. The “30 by 30” objective, established by policymakers in 2019, calls for the nation to become 30% self-sufficient by 2030. The policy focuses on expanding innovative food production methods including aquaculture and vertical farming, and the Singaporean government has made it clear that it supports cultured meat.
“Singapore is a global leader when it comes to cultivated meat. It was the first country to approve the production and sales of cultivated meat in 2020 as part of its ’30 by 30′ strategy which aims to build up its agri-food industry’s capability and capacity to produce 30% of its nutritional needs locally and sustainably by 2030,” reflected Meatable CEO Krijn de Nood.
“The aim is to develop cultivated pork on a small scale by 2024 for restaurants, with the aim to have products on sale in supermarkets by 2025.”
The company’s initial offerings would ‘probably’ be grown pig sausages and dumplings. On particular permissions, it is now collaborating with Singaporean regulators. For the Asian market, eatable has worked with Singaporean chefs to create custom pork items.
“Our team has been working closely with the country’s butchers and chefs to develop the perfect cultivated pork dumplings and it was incredible to recently taste the dumplings and know that we have created something indistinguishable from traditional meat,” de Nood revealed.
ESCO Aster, which was founded in 2017, has a “best-in-class” facility for producing grown meat. This facility, along with experts in food safety and science, accelerates the proof-of-concept to market process. FoodNavigator is aware that ESCO Aster has plans to increase capacity in the upcoming years. In 2024 and 2025, the group plans to create 50,000 liters of cultured beef.
“With our scientific expertise, operational know-how, and enabling technologies, we believe that we can help companies reach their milestones and advance to the next step of cultivated meat production with market approval at scale.”
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