Singapore is the first country to approve laboratory-grown meat

Chicken bites containing lab-grown meat will debut at a Singapore restaurant before they spread across the country.

(CNN Business) -

Singapore has granted regulatory approval to Eat Just Inc., a

San Francisco

, to sell its lab-grown chicken in the city-state.

It is the first government in the world to allow the sale of cultured meat.

The product, created from cultured chicken cells, has been approved as an ingredient in chicken nuggets following approval by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), Eat Just said on Tuesday.

Initially, the chicken nuggets will debut in a Singapore restaurant.

There are plans for them to later expand to other restaurants and retail establishments across the country, Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just, told CNN Business.

The product will be priced the same as premium chicken, he added.

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“We have been eating meat for many hundreds, thousands of years;

we always need to kill an animal for food, until now, ”he said.

Cultured meat is created in a bioreactor, a device in which a biological reaction or change takes place, Eat Just said.

It is high in protein and a rich source of minerals, according to the company, which plans to sell the product under the GOOD Meat brand.

Other offerings besides Eat Just's lab meat

For now, with manufacturing centers in Singapore and Northern California, the company only has approval to sell laboratory-grown meat in Singapore, but hopes to expand sales of cultured meat, including cultured beef, to the United States and Europe. Western, Tetrick said.

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Eat Just already produces a variety of non-animal products, including Just Egg, made with mung beans and vegan mayonnaise.

The trend toward meat substitutes and plant proteins, already growing in the United States, is also taking hold in Asia.

This year, despite the global economic turmoil brought on by the coronavirus pandemic,

plant-based protein

Impossible Foods secured nearly $ 500 million in funding.

The funds came primarily from heavyweight investors in Asia.

California-based Beyond Meat last month introduced a meatless minced "pork" to launch in China.

Meanwhile, Impossible launched its fake beef product in supermarkets in Hong Kong and Singapore in October, hoping to expand its presence in Asia.

CNN Business' Michelle Toh contributed to this report.