Jimi Biotech Unveils “China’s First” 100% Cultivated Chicken
The cultivated meat is developed from rooster cells - rather than a farmed animal - and its color, smell, and flavor is said to be near-identical to traditional chicken.
Credit: Jimi Biotech
A Chinese company has unveiled what it calls “China’s first” 100% cultivated chicken.
Hangzhou-based startup Jimi Biotech was founded in 2021 with the aim to produce meat directly from animal cells, rather than from farming and slaughtering an animal. Within four months of launching, it debuted the first cultivated beef in China.
Now, Jimi Biotech has revealed its latest food invention: cultivated chicken that’s crafted from rooster cells.
The company’s CEO Zhehou Cao reports that its cultivated chicken has performed well in initial taste tests, noting that there is little difference from traditional chicken in terms of color, smell, and flavor. The slaughter-free meat can be cooked in a variety of ways including steaming, frying, and boiling.
Credit: Jimi Biotech
From a technical standpoint, Cao made the decision to cultivate the rooster cells by choosing not to incorporate plant scaffolds, which are often used in cultivated meat production. Instead, Jimi Biotech focuses on using only animal cells, which results in what the company calls “100 percent” cell-based meat.
Cao says that using only animal cells can lead to improvements in taste and texture.
The next plans for the cultivated chicken include scaling the product so that its production cost is lowered, something which currently prohibits many cultivated meat products from mass-production. Jimi Biotech says it has already achieved progress in this area, and has reduced the cost of the culture medium to around 100 yuan ($15) - which is only 3 percent of the market price of the culture medium.
“Although only three months have passed since the last round of funding, Jimi Biotech has still made significant technological breakthroughs”, explains Jiang Weichang, partner of Shiwei Capital, a key investor in Jimi Biotech’s latest funding round. “In addition to the rapid progress in core areas such as cell lines and culture media, we believe that Jimi Biotech’s deep integration of automation and AI into the research and development also reflects the founder’s emphasis on continuously improving research and development efficiency.”
Feeding China’s Growing Population
With a population of 1.4 billion people, China is the world’s largest meat market and already consumes more than half of all the pork produced worldwide. That has led to the ongoing construction of huge farms across the country, including new pig breeding facilities where thousands of pigs are ‘farmed’ and slaughtered in specifically-built high-rise buildings.
A 26-storey factory farm ‘skyscraper’ in the central Hubei province, recently became the largest single-building factory farm in the world, with the capacity to house around 650,000 animals at any one time.
The increase of intensive farms like these have drawn criticism about animal welfare, sustainability, and the risk of new infectious diseases that could also pass over to the human population.
But alongside the increase in animal farming, there’s also a growing appetite for plant-based and alternative proteins too. Mainstream franchises like McDonald’s, Starbucks, and KFC have all recently trialled plant-based meats in the country, including Beyond Meat beef and plant-based Omnipork.
One of Starbucks China’s meat-free dishes, the OMNIPORK Vietnamese Style Noodle Salad. Credit: Starbucks
And with companies like Jimi Biotech set to bring cultivated meat to the country’s population too, there is hope that China’s food system could take a more sustainable approach by increasing its consumption of animal-free meat.
Listen to our podcast episode Plant-Based China, where we talk with Albert Tseng, co-founder of Dao Foods and an expert in the alternative protein companies who are transforming the Chinese market. Listen here.
We Have A Favor To Ask…
Species Unite amplifies well-researched solutions to some of the most abusive animal industries operating today.
At this crucial moment, with worldwide momentum for change building, it’s vital we share these animal-free solutions with the world - and we need your help.
We’re a nonprofit, and so to keep sharing these solutions, we’re relying on you - with your support, we can continue our essential work in growing a powerful community of animal advocates this year.
More stories:
Species Unite
A collection of stories of those who fight the good fight on behalf of animals.
Hope was last seen traveling with another critically endangered Mexican gray wolf, whose whereabouts remain unknown.