Chicken grown in a lab – Would you eat it?

If you went to a restaurant for a chicken meal but on the menu is chicken nuggets, not the regular ones, but nuggets from chicken produced in a lab, not a farm, would you partake of it?

The issue has arisen because the Asian city of Singapore has just given approval to an American food manufacturing company, Eat Just, to sell chicken meat in nugget form that has been cultivated in a laboratory. It is a development which has stirred much controversy world-wide.

The move to produce meat produced in such a manner has been fuelled by global concerns based around health, animal welfare and the environment. Already a number of plant-based meat alternatives, principally from soya, exists globally but this is the first time that chicken cultivated from animal muscle in a lab has been given approval for sale to the public.

There is a growing demand for such products with a market estimated to be as large as US$140 billion in 10 years time. However the lab chicken is more expensive to produce and there are concerns about health and safety.

So, if offered, would you try the lab chicken?