The Future of Food

Tatler explores whether cultivated meats—grown in a lab from animal cells—are really more sustainable and whether they will find a permanent place on Asia’s dining tables

- Dudi Aureus

As a food writer, I’ve tried just about everything that can be served on a dining table (and some things that perhaps shouldn’t be). But the idea of eating cultivated meat—also known as cell-based, cultured or lab-grown meat, which is meat made from animal cells rather than the meat of slaughtered livestock—still gave me pause: is it safe? Is it healthy? And is it really more sustainable than the real thing?

In December 2020, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) approved the sale of cultivated meat in Singapore, the first government body in the world to do so. The approval was for a cultivated chicken developed by American food tech company Eat Just’s Good Meat subsidiary, and the product—billed as the future of food and presented in bite-sized nugget form—debuted at private members club 1880. Later, dishes using Good Meat cultivated chicken featured on Cantonese restaurant Madame Fan’s delivery menu.

Despite my initial hesitation, I threw caution to the wind and sampled Madame Fan’s chicken and rice— breaded Good Meat chicken cutlets set atop fragrant jasmine rice, served with heritage carrots, micro shiso and edible flowers. The perfectly seasoned cultivated chicken tasted just like “natural” chicken breast, with a noticeably smoother, tenderer texture.

Eighteen months on, Good Meat chicken remains the only cultivated meat currently commercially available in Singapore. But more foodtech companies are following suit and developing their own cultivated meat products, aiming to ease the food demands of a rapidly growing population and develop a more sustainable way of producing meat that is better for the planet.

FINDING ALTERNATIVES