Shrimp Paste

For years, there’s been a crowded market of startups racing to bring the first lab-grown meat to market — think Aleph Farms, JUST, and the Bill Gates-funded Memphis Meats.

But bringing a product to supermarket shelves has remained elusive. To be fair, it continues to do so. But, according to a new feature in the Los Angeles Times , a Singaporean startup called Shiok Meats may be poised to be the first company in the world to actually sell a lab-grown meat.

Cell Gel

Shiok is focusing its energy on shrimp, an industry that’s been plagued by human slavery and profound environmental concerns .

“Singapore is doing more of its own investing and is the most receptive from a regulatory angle to greenlighting this to go to market first,” cultured meat expert Chase Purdy told the LA Times . “It will likely be a restaurant in Singapore that serves this up to consumers for the first time in history.”

Price Point

Though numerous startups have created prototype cultured meats, it’s remained prohibitively expensive.

Siok is getting close. It’s brought the price per pound down from $2,268 per pound to just $1,588, according to the Times , and says it’ll be a hundred times cheaper than that by next year.

If they can pull it off — admittedly a big if, and the Times  fell short of predicting precisely when it would hit the market — the company is planning to move on to lab-grown lobster and crab next.

READ MORE: The first lab-grown meat for sale could come from this Singapore startup that’s re-creating shrimp [ LA Times ]

© Author: Jon Christian