Production facility for cultivated fish set to open in Singapore by 2022

[SINGAPORE] Fish fillets and even fish maw made from cell culture instead of slaughter could soon appear on dinner tables here, with Chinese firm Avant set to open a pilot production facility for cultivated fish in Singapore by next year.

The facility, announced by the firm on Monday, will come alongside a research laboratory by Avant and the Bioprocessing Technology Institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), which focuses on how to scale-up the production of food-grade cultivated fish.

The joint research laboratory for cultivated fish bioprocessing will be located in Biopolis in Buona Vista, Singapore's biomedical hub.

Avant and A*Star said in a statement that research at the laboratory will look into developing solutions that will enable the production of cultivated fish cells to be scaled up. This includes, for instance, identifying factors that affect the growth of cultivated fish cells and processes to improve this.

Avant, which develops technologies for fish-cell cultivation, already manmakes products such as fish fillet, marine peptides and fish maw via cell culture. It will combine its expertise in the area with the A*Star institute's aptitudes in bioprocess research and development, including animal cell bioprocessing.

Multiple research groups in Singapore are looking into cultivating different animal cells for use in food, including chicken, pork and seafood, amid surging global interest in alternative proteins and how they can help reduce the massive carbon footprint of rearing livestock for food.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation says the livestock sector produces about 15 per cent of all global greenhouse gas emissions.

But to date, only one such cell cultured product - cultured chicken bites by Californian start-up Eat Just - has been given regulatory approval to be sold in Singapore. Such products have not yet been approved by any other regulatory authority in the world.

Cultured meat refers to meat products that are made from growing animal cells in a bioreactor - similar to the vats used in brewing beer - instead of slaughtering the animals. Cells are taken from the animal through methods such as a biopsy. Such a meat production method is considered to be more sustainable, as large volumes can be produced involving less land and labour.

Being able to produce cultivated meat within a building, instead of requiring acres of land for rearing livestock, could also boost food security for land-scarce Singapore.

Moreover, as the entire process of cultivating meat takes place in a controlled environment, there is less need for antibiotics to be used in the production of such meat.

The latest announcement by Avant and A*Star comes on the heels of the opening of the world's first commercial facility producing cultivated chicken in Singapore. The facility in Ayer Rajah Crescent by Esco Aster, a home-grown contract development and manufacturing organisation, was given approval and started production of the Eat Just cultivated chicken in July.

In Singapore, firms producing cultured meat products must conduct and submit safety assessments of their products for review by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) before they are allowed for sale. These assessments cover potential food safety risks, including toxicity and production method safety.

Firms that wish to manufacture these approved products in Singapore must obtain a separate SFA licence.

THE STRAITS TIMES