SAN FRANCISCO – Memphis Meats Inc. has grown the company’s offerings of cultured meat to include chicken and duck.
The company offered samples of the cultured chicken and duck at a kitchen in San Francisco as part of a planned reveal of the new products. Dishes served were southern fried chicken and duck á l’orange. The company developed a ‘clean’ meatball in 2016.
“It is thrilling to introduce the first chicken and duck that didn’t require raising animals. This is a historic moment for the clean meat movement,” Uma Valeti, co-founder and CEO of Memphis Meats said in a statement. “Chicken and duck are at the center of the table in so many cultures around the world, but the way conventional poultry is raised creates huge problems for the environment, animal welfare, and human health. It is also inefficient. We aim to produce meat in a better way, so that it is delicious, affordable and sustainable. We really believe this is a significant technological leap for humanity, and an incredible business opportunity – to transform a giant global industry while contributing to solving some of the most urgent sustainability issues of our time.”
Poultry is widely consumed throughout the world. The US Dept. of Agriculture projects consumers will eat 91.7 lbs. of chicken in 2017, up from about 90 lbs. in 2016. And China leads the world in consumption of duck. Duck has a deep significance in many regions including mainland China, which consumes more than 6 billion lbs. per year, more than the rest of the world combined,” according to Memphis Meats.
Cultured meat startups such as Memphis Meats, Modern Meadow Inc. and Mosa Meat aim to bring cultured meat to the masses. The products are grown using stem cells from cows, pigs and chickens. Memphis Meats plans to launch its products to consumers in 2021.
