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  • 2019-03-05 (xsd:date)
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  • Are Chicken Nuggets Made From Feathers Heading to Store Shelves? (en)
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  • In March 2019, we started receiving queries about lab grown chicken nuggets made from feathers that were expected to hit store shelves by the end of the year. While various companies have been working on such meat for awhile, many readers apparently were confused by the meaning of made from feathers and were curious about when these products would be available for purchase. In October 2018, outlets such as Food Beast reported that the food-manufacturing company Just (formerly Hampton Creek) was developing a cultured chicken nugget. This development was frequently reported under headlines using the phrase made from feathers, which may have given some readers the wrong impression about how cultured nuggets were made. In fact, many readers seemed to have come away from these articles with more questions than answers. Are people eating feathers? No. In order to make lab-grown meat, or clean meat, manufactures start by collecting some cells. While these cells can be collected from a feather, Just's head of communications, Andrew Noyes, said that their first products won't be produced from cells collected from a feather: So they take cells, grow them into a chicken, and then kill the animal to make nuggets? No. One driving factor for this industry is that these cultured meat products can be created without killing an animal. While the process is a bit complicated, here's a brief explanation from Vox about how the synthetic sausage (or chicken) is made: Here's a video from Just explaining the process: Will clean meats be available in the supermarket in 2019? Not likely. While a number of companies have successfully made synthetic meat products, and while a few brave journalists have sunk their teeth into them, we're still a ways away from having cultured nuggets in the supermarket aisle. One factor that could be slowing down their release is cost. In January 2019, Just's cultured nugget was featured on ITV Tonight's Food Challenge: Meat vs Vegan. In addition to explaining more about how these nuggets are made, Just CEO Joshua Tetrick said that one nugget currently costs about $100: There are also still questions about how to regulate clean meat products. The BBC reported that adventurous American eaters may have to travel overseas to get their first taste of a cultured nugget, as the United States hasn't quite figured out how to regulate lab-grown meats: While Just is truly developing a cultured nugget, as far as we can tell this product has yet to hit store shelves. We reached out to Just for more information on when these nuggets will be available to the public. Memphis Meats, another company developing cultivated chicken (and duck), hopes to release its own products by 2021. In short, several companies are working on developing lab-grown meat products, but these foods aren't quite ready for wide release. Furthermore, while saying that these cultured nuggets can be made from feathers is technically true, this is just one method in which the required cells can be collected. (en)
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