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Chinese firm serves up lab-grown pork in world's top meat market

Published 09/04/2021, 07:55 AM
Updated 09/04/2021, 09:20 AM
© Reuters. A piece of pork meat cultivated in a lab is displayed during an event by CellX, a cultivated meat startup, to introduce product prototypes in Shanghai, China September 3, 2021. REUTERS/Emily Chow

© Reuters. A piece of pork meat cultivated in a lab is displayed during an event by CellX, a cultivated meat startup, to introduce product prototypes in Shanghai, China September 3, 2021. REUTERS/Emily Chow

(This September 3 story was refiled to fix typo in Li Peiying's name in paragraph 3)

By Emily Chow and Dominique Patton

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese startup CellX unveiled a selection of lab-grown pork dishes on Friday and said it was aiming to produce the more environmentally friendly meat at competitive prices for the world's top meat-eating nation by 2025.

Investors were invited to taste one of the prototypes produced in its Shanghai lab from cells harvested from China's native black pig.

"The taste is on the bland side ... but overall it's not bad," said Li Peiying, a guest who tested the minced pork blended with plant protein.

Cultured meat, or meat grown from animal muscle cells in a lab, could significantly reduce the environmental impact of farming animals, say its proponents, while also avoiding welfare issues and disease.

China in particular, which consumed 86 million tonnes of meat in 2020 or about 30% of global demand, is in urgent need of a cleaner meat supply to meet its carbon goals, says CellX.

Meat grown in the lab could also offer a more stable food supply to a market that has faced huge shortages and volatility following the outbreak of African swine fever in 2018.

But production costs in the nascent industry are still far higher than conventional protein, and analysts say consumers could balk at eating artificially grown meat.

In China, however, "there are lots of people wanting to try it," CellX founder Yang Ziliang told Reuters.

Yang declined to comment on current production costs but said the company, founded just last year, was aiming to be cost competitive with animal meat by 2025.

A recent McKinsey report estimated cultivated meat could reach cost parity with conventional meat by 2030, as the industry increases scale and fine-tunes R&D.

Lab-grown chicken meat was sold to consumers for the first time in Singapore last year, but there are currently no regulations permitting its sale in China.

© Reuters. A piece of pork meat cultivated in a lab is displayed during an event by CellX, a cultivated meat startup, to introduce product prototypes in Shanghai, China September 3, 2021. REUTERS/Emily Chow

CellX, which raised $4.3 million earlier this year and is now seeking fresh funding, is also eyeing the global market, however.

"Our vision is to change the way meat is produced. This isn't just a China issue, it's a global issue, so for us to achieve our vision, we need to be a global company," said Yang.

Latest comments

I would try this even as a vegetarian. Lab grown is the future of meat. Traditional will live on but its relative cost will skyrocket.
Disgusting. Why would you eat chemical stuff like that when you can hunt your own boar in the forest?
Not everyone can do that? Our forests would be picked clean in a day if everyone tried that.
I told you guys... China is at the forefront of technologies... the tide is about to flow the other way...
They are also good at developing novel viruses
Does it also come with a covid condiment?
covid not from China. the first covid case was in US
covid not from China. the first covid case was in US
Vegetarian is the better solution.
don't underestimate the amount of water, land and pesticides required to produce enough vegetables
On balance still less than for factory farming, processing, and mass destruction of forests to grow cattle feed.
where do you think cattle feed comes from? Magic?
what about Protein in this???
🤮🤮🤮
🤮
How about panda meat
😆😆New: the McPanda menu
Artificial taste, artificial coloring, additives added.  Worse than GMO meat!  No, thank you!
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