Lab-grown meat can be kosher and halal, experts say

Sept. 11 (Reuters) – Meat grown in a lab can be used as long as the cells are obtained using methods that comply with religious standards, according to two expert panels commissioned by the emerging industry. , can be labeled as kosher and halal.

Executives said the opinion is a win for cell-cultured meat companies because it means devout followers of Judaism and Islam could someday consume their products.

“This is another indicator that cultured meat is a real solution,” said Josh Tetrick, CEO of Good Meat.

Currently, cultured meat is sold in very small quantities in the United States and Singapore, but companies are hoping that private and public investors will inject enough capital into the field to expand production and transform diets around the world. I hope so.

Cultured meat is derived from samples of animal cells that are fed a nutrient mixture and grown in steel vats, thereby avoiding the need for land-intensive industrial farming operations and slaughterhouses.

Companies in the emerging industry hope their products will appeal not only to vegans and vegetarians, but also to climate-sensitive meat eaters.

GOOD has convened a committee of three Sharia experts to review the company’s production and on Sunday said, among other things, if the cells used to make meat come from animals slaughtered according to Islamic law, Said the meat could be halal.

Although GOOD’s chicken does not currently meet that standard, the opinion provides the industry with a roadmap to producing halal products, Tetrick said in an interview.

The Orthodox Union (OU), the largest kosher certification body, said on September 6 that farmed chicken produced by Israeli company Supermeat is fed no animal products and is extracted from fertilized eggs before blood stains appear. It was announced that the cells from the chickens obtained met the standards. .

Supermeat and the OU are working on broader guidelines for the industry, company CEO Ido Saville said.

More than 12 million people in the U.S. eat kosher products and more than 8 million eat halal products, according to the OU and halal certification agency American Islamic Services.

Regulators allowed the consumption of farmed chicken in the United States earlier this year, and it has since been served in some high-end restaurants.

Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.