Milestones
- Singapore approval and first saleDec 2020Complete.
- US USDA approvalJun 2023Complete.
- Retail product in SingaporeJan 2024Complete.
Most important updates
- Mar 2024
- 21 Jun 2023
- 9 Jun 2022
- Dec 2020
Current obstacles
- Production costCultivated chicken still costs far more than normal chicken, so products are mixed with plant protein.
Physics limits
- Oxygen barely dissolves in water, capping how dense cells can growWarm culture broth holds only about 7 mg of oxygen per litre. Dense cells use it up in seconds, and stirring or bubbling harder damages them, so each tank tops out far below the cell density of real meat.
- Animal cells grow far slower than germsAnimal cells double about once a day; bacteria can double in 20–30 minutes. A single stray microbe can overrun a batch, so everything must stay sterile like a drug plant, which is costly at food scale.
- Without blood vessels, thick tissue starves in the middleNutrients and oxygen diffuse only about 0.1–0.2 mm into living tissue. Real meat is fed by capillaries; grown meat thicker than that needs scaffolds or channels, which is why most products are minced or thin.
How it works
Cells
Start from chicken cells
A line of chicken cells that can keep dividing is kept in a cell bank, so no animal is slaughtered to make each batch.
Grow
Multiply in steel tanks
The cells grow in bioreactors filled with a nutrient broth of sugars, amino acids and salts, kept warm and sterile.
Blend
Mix into a food product
Harvested cells are mixed with plant proteins and fats and formed into pieces; the Singapore retail product contains only a small share of cells.
Update log
Mar 2024
- Major: PressManufacturing
Wed 21 Jun 2023
- Major: PressRegulatory
Thu 9 Jun 2022
- Minor: PressManufacturing
Dec 2020
- Major: PressRegulatory
About Eat Just
Eat Just
JUST Egg plant-based egg, GOOD Meat
San Francisco food company behind JUST Egg, an egg substitute made from mung bean protein, and GOOD Meat, which made the world's first sale of cultivated meat (Singapore, December 2020) and got US clearance in 2023.
- GOOD Meat chicken was the first cultivated meat sold anywhere, in Singapore in December 2020.
- JUST Egg is sold in the US and has expanded into German supermarkets including REWE.
- Cultivated meat sales so far are small and limited to Singapore.
- Founded
- 201115 yrs
- Headquarters
- United States
- Status
- Private
- Valuation
- private
- Works in
- AgricultureCultivated meat
- Coverage
- 2 programs · 6 updateslatest 1 Mar 2024checked 25 Sep
- People
- Josh Tetrick (opens en.wikipedia.org)Co-founder & CEO