The cultivated meat conference in Kuala Lumpur on Mar 16, 2023 included a roundtable on the halal status of such products. (Photo: Cell AgriTech)

Malaysia is launching its first lab-grown meat facility

The following is an excerpt from an article published by CNA:

To mark Earth Day, CNA looks at efforts to set up Malaysia’s first cultivated meat production facility in Penang and what it means in the fight against climate change.

Malaysia is poised to start producing its own lab-grown meat in the next two years, a move that could potentially help in the urgent fight against climate change.

Malaysian company Cell AgriTech aims to finish building the country’s first cultivated meat production facility in Penang by the end of 2024, where it will grow live animal cells in bioreactors into meat products for consumers.

Photo: Cell AgriTech

On the surface, this technology is greener than traditional farming. Growing meat in a lab requires far less land and can be done closer to consumers, reducing the carbon footprint from land clearing and logistics needed to deliver the product.

“We use less land, less water and produce less waste,” Cell AgriTech founder Jason Ng told CNA, noting that cells would only need to be extracted from a single animal.

“If you talk about fish, some people don’t eat the head or the skin. But we can just take muscle cells from a fish and produce fish fillet.”

Cell AgriTech founder Jason Ng doing research and development work on meat cultivation. (Photo: Cell AgriTech)

Cell AgriTech, partnering with Singapore-based cultivated seafood producer Umami Meats, is aiming to produce cultivated grouper and Japanese eel meat at scale for export by 2025.

Malaysia currently does not allow the sale of cultivated meat, but Mr Ng said his company is working with the health ministry to regulate his products for safety.

It is a stringent certification process that Mr Ng believes will make his cultivated meat even safer for consumption than conventional meat, especially as his products - unlike livestock - would not have been injected with antibiotics.

Malaysia's Cell AgriTech and Singapore-based Umami Meats signing an agreement at a conference on cultivated meat in Kuala Lumpur on Mar 16, 2023. (Photo: Cell AgriTech)

The company will first focus on cultivating seafood before moving on to beef and chicken. The high cost of cultivating meat products makes premium fish ideal candidates to be lab-grown as they are able to fetch higher prices when sold.

Mr Ng hopes to reduce the price of his lab-grown seafood from US$60/kg to less than US$30/kg before 2025, by using a cheaper nutrient-rich medium that allows cells to grow. The target is to eventually price all his products at US$10/kg.[continues...]

Source: CNA - ChannelNewsAsia | Read the full article by clicking the link here

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