JUST’s $50 Slaughter-Free Chicken Nuggets Are Ready for Market

California-based food technology company JUST is ready to debut its cell-based chicken nuggets. To make the nuggets, JUST is using cellular agriculture to grow animal cells in baths of a nutrient-rich liquid mixture of salts, sugars, and amino acids, which allows the cells to multiply naturally into animal protein without the need to slaughter animals. At a cost of $50 each, the nuggets are ready for small-scale commercialization but JUST is waiting for regulators to get on board with the concept. “We are working with regulators in several countries on a pathway to market although we have not disclosed which ones,” Andrew Noyes, JUST’s head of global communications, told VegNews. “We are prepared to make our first small-scale commercial sale of a chicken product and we have heard from restaurateurs who are interested in being among the first in the world to offer cultured meat on their menus.” There are currently a number of companies worldwide working to create slaughter-free beef, chicken, and fish and once JUST obtains the regulatory approval it seeks, it may become the first company to offer cell-based meat to the public.