China's first lab-grown cell-cultured meat was unveiled recently in Nanjing, a southern city in China.

（Photo/The National Center of Meat Quality and Safety Control)

The Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU) recently announced the development of China's first piece of cell-cultured meat. Zhou Guanghong, a professor at the School of Food Science and Technology of NAU, led the team to use the sixth generation of pig muscle stem cells and cultivate them in the nutrient solution for 20 days, and were finally able to produce a 5-gram piece of meat.

About 30 companies around the world have invested in research and development of cell-cultured meat. Among them, four companies are preparing to enter the Chinese market.

The industry forecasts that when the cost of cell-cultured meat falls to around 10 US dollars/kg, the products will be marketable.

According to incomplete statistics, China, the United States, Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore, Japan and other countries and regions are developing cell-cultured meat, mainly in the fields of beef, pork and seafood.

"If artificial meat leads the food trend in the next seven or eight years, we will live in a world of meat cultivation in 10 years," an industry insider predicted, adding that a large amount of Chinese capital is expected to enter the sector within five years.