Singapore is the world leader in selling cultivated meat

The island-state’s long history as a maritime trading hub, bringing together Chinese, European, Indian and Malay migrants, has given Singapore a rich culinary culture. It got even more diverse in December 2020 when the country became the first to grant regulatory approval for the commercial sale of meat produced in a lab from cultivated animal cells.

Concerns about food security underlie Singapore’s push into alternative proteins. A country half the size of London, which makes only 1% of its land available for food production, Singapore imports over 90% of its food. To protect itself from a volatile food supply chain, disruption by unpredictable neighbours, inflation, pandemics and war, the government aims to produce 30% of the country’s food by 2030.

It is encouraging experimentation with cultivated animal cells, meat, dairy and eggs made from plants, and food made from microbial or gas fermentation. Annual private funding for Singapore-based alternative-protein companies doubled to $170m in 2022, according to the Good Food Institute APAC, an NGO that promotes alternatives to animal products.

A common challenge for alternative-protein startups is that they need to spend a lot of their initial investment on new equipment. This means they can struggle to become profitable without heavy capital outlays. The government has therefore invested in relevant infrastructure such as innovation centres that help startups develop their products and raise capital. Nurasa, an alternative protein service provider backed by Temasek, a Singaporean sovereign wealth fund, helps startups minimise the risk of buying expensive equipment by renting out labs and kitchens that replicate a restaurant environment. This allows firms to test their product and business model before purchasing their own equipment, says Jolene Lum, its head of business development.

Singapore has also become the global launch-pad for foods made through precision fermentation, notes Mirte Gosker of the Good Food Institute APAC. Solar Foods is a Finnish startup that uses gas fermentation to feed microbes with hydrogen and carbon dioxide. It turns the resultant liquid into a powder, known as Solein, which is nutritionally similar to dried meat. In June the firm launched the world’s first Solein chocolate gelato in Singapore.

Very Dairy, an animal-free milk brand of a firm based in California, first launched in Singapore in 2022. The milk is biologically identical to conventional milk proteins but made from microbes instead of cows. That may be good for the climate, since farmed cattle produce a lot of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Greenhouse-gas emissions from animal-based foods are estimated to account for around a fifth of man-made climate change.

Singapore has encouraged the industry by offering a clear regulatory framework and an efficient approval process. Solar Foods has been waiting for two years for regulatory approval in the European Union, says the company’s CEO, Pasi Vainikka. The EU has yet to approve any cultivated meat products for sale. By contrast, Solein was granted approval in Singapore within a year. This fast and transparent process means that many products appear in Singapore first, which is “a huge gift for the whole world because Singapore shows what is possible”, says Mr Vainikka.

Whether those products can be taken to scale remains unclear. Even in Singapore the alternative-proteins industry faces high production costs and other burdens. The only cultivated-meat company to have received approval in Singapore is Good Meat, an American firm. It sells less than 2,300kg a year of its cultivated chicken. For context, global meat production is forecast to grow to over 360m tonnes this year.

Last month America became the second country to approve the production and sale of cultivated meat. Two companies, Good Meat and Upside Food, have already got the go-ahead to sell cell-cultivated chicken there. America’s vast consumer market and cutting-edge technology could be about to threaten Singapore’s early lead. ■