India’s First Lab-Grown Meat Project Launches In Hyderabad

Lab-grown meat may soon make its way to our plates! The Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), along with the National Research Centre on Meat (NCRM) are partnering to produce “ahimsa meat” or slaughter-free meat – mutton and chicken that has been grown from stem cells, without animal rearing. 

In a report in the Times Of India, scientists at CCMB have said that the meat is nutritionally on par with conventional animal meat with the same taste, smell and texture. 

It’s a significant move because India is one of the few countries in the world where the government is funding projects to develop lab meat. (US-based Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are private entities.)

Slaughter-free meat isn’t just more humane, it also gives food security and helps reduce a consumer’s carbon footprint - it takes 15,500 litres of water to produce 1 kg of beef through conventional animal farming methods. 

At a summit on the future of protein in 2018, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi had advised the CCMB to produce ahimsa meat on a commercial scale within the next 5 years. 

CCMB director Rakesh Mishra said the institute will develop technology to take the production process from lab-based to industrial levels – so it may reach consumers sooner than we think!

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