Singapore – the first country to approve sale of lab-grown meat

Excellent study material for all civil services aspirants - begin learning - Kar ke dikhayenge!

Singapore – the first country to approve sale of lab-grown meat

---

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

---

Highlights –  

1. Singapore has given US start-up Eat Just the nod to sell its lab-grown chicken meat, in what the firm says is the world's first regulatory approval for so-called clean meat that does not come from slaughtered animals.
2. Demand for alternatives to regular meat is surging due to consumer concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment.
3. Plant-based meat options, popularised by Beyond Meat Inc and Impossible Foods, increasingly feature on supermarket shelves and restaurant menus.
4. However, so-called clean or cultured meat, which is grown from animal muscle cells in a lab, is still at a nascent stage given high production costs.
5. The firm said the meat will be sold as nuggets and had previously pegged their cost at $50 each.
6. But co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick said the cost has since come down and the meat would be priced at parity to premium chicken when it first launches in a restaurant in Singapore "in the very near term".
7. The company is targeting operating profitability before the end of 2021, and hopes to go public soon after.
8. Globally more than two dozen firms are testing lab-grown fish, beef and chicken, hoping to break into an unproven segment of the alternative meat market, which Barclays estimates could be worth $140 billion by 2029.
9. A joint communique, issued at the end of the 19th meeting of the Council of Heads of Governments of the SCO, said Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan reaffirming their support for the OBOR initiative.
10. The virtual summit was hosted by India and it was chaired by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.
11. The SCO member states of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan attended the meeting at the level of prime ministers. Pakistan was represented by its parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs.
12. India has been maintaining that it cannot accept a project that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity.
13. The SCO is an eight-nation bloc which is being increasingly seen as a counterweight to NATO.
14. India and Pakistan became permanent members of the SCO in 2017.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

Join UPSC Self Prep course | Online Course (PT Gurukul)  | Covid Special Course | Join PT courses

* Content sourced from free internet sources (publications, PIB site, international sites, etc.). Take your own subscriptions. Copyrights acknowledged.