In a landmark development in the world of kashrus, the Orthodox Union has certified a strain of lab-grown meat as kosher for the first time. The certification was given to Israeli startup SuperMeat’s lab grown poultry.
The certification followed SuperMeat’s hosting of two rabbinic delegations and extensive discussions between kashrus authorities and the company regarding halachic concerns and the scientific processes employed in SuperMeat’s technology. The certification process involved the participation of prominent rabbanim, including Rabbi Hershel Schachter of New York’s Yeshiva University, Rabbi Asher Weiss, and Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon of the Gush Etzion Regional Council and Jerusalem College of Technology.
Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of the Orthodox Union Kosher Division, emphasized the importance of this development, stating, “It’s a big deal because just in terms of the technology itself, not just in poultry but in meat, it may have real significance for the future.”
Certifying lab-grown meat presents unique challenges due to the initial use of stem cells derived from living animals in the meat cultivation process, as consuming any part of a living animal is prohibited. The Orthodox Union’s guidelines dictate that meat products must originate from a slaughtered animal, and nothing may be derived from a living creature.
SuperMeat’s approach to lab-grown poultry overcomes this challenge by utilizing stem cells obtained from eggs, a method that has the potential to pave the way for additional kosher certifications of poultry products.
Rabbi Genack expressed his hopes that this development would lead to a consensus among various supervising agencies regarding the standards for lab-grown meat. He said, “We’re hoping that this will set the trend. One of our goals that we would like to do is to have something that is universally accepted.”
SuperMeat’s unique process involves taking chicken cells from a fertilized egg and cultivating them in a meat fermenter. These cells receive heat, oxygen, and nourishment from a plant-based liquid, mimicking the natural growth process in a chicken’s body. The meat tissue develops rapidly, doubling in mass within hours. Once ready, the meat is harvested from the fermenter by removing the liquid feed.
SuperMeat touts several advantages of its lab-grown chicken products over conventionally farmed meat. Their process is animal-friendly, environmentally conscious, avoids the use of antibiotics or genetic engineering, maintains high-quality control, and extends product shelf life by eliminating the need for slaughter, a primary source of contamination.
Founded in 2015, SuperMeat makes its products available to the public through “The Chicken,” an eatery located in central Israel’s Ness Ziona.
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25 Responses
Is it fleishig or parve?
Yum Yum.
And one huge additional benefit: no more Monsey treife chicken scandals.
Does this meat 🍖 need to be 🧂 salted?
Can this meat 🍖 be consumed together with dairy?
Rabbi louder I don’t hear you.
so is this Pareve or Fleishig?
Is it pareve since it comes from an egg or perhaps fleishig regardless? I would think the same process would work for an animal embryo stem cell.
If the stem cells come from an egg is the lab grown chicken parve? That’s just my guess as regular chicken eggs are parve, but this is from a fertilized egg so does that make it fleishig ?
never…..it isn’t a gilgul___you can not change torah at will…..Orthofox Union…I no longer follow you
not much different than Bill Gates…not trusting Hashem in proving us with food and nourishment or a Korban…..what about Passover…..Joseph’s brothers can’t conjure a leg of lamb…..disgusting
Is this considered fleishig or pareve?
The Halacha is that if an animal is Shechted and a viable fetus is found inside, that child can be eaten without requiring Shechita, as it’s considered already shecheted when its mother was. This is called a Ben Paku’ah. This exemption carries on to following generations, should the Ben Paku’ah grow to bear its own young.
HOWEVER, Chazal instituted a Takanah saying that if that calf (or lamb, kid, etc.) actually walked under its own power, it must be shechted. The reason for this is that Chazal were concerned that a farmer would keep such an animal, and actually try to produce several – male and female, whereupon he would have them breed and raise an entire herd of animals that do not require shechitah, thereby causing the concept of shechitah to be forgotten.
With all the back and forth regarding lab-grown meat, I see no one addressing this problem. If we start manufacturing lab-grown meat, the entire concept of shechita will be forgotten. The fine art of Nikkur Giddim has already been lost to most Ashkenazi communities since many communities in pre-war Europe simply stopped eating hindquarters, and so the only ones who still keep the mesorah of how to remove Gid Hanashe are mostly Sephardic communities. This will kill Nikkur Gidim, Nikkur of forbidden fats (in fact there will be no one left to even recognize what is permitted and what is not, checking lungs for lesions and more and more. I have to wonder what Chazal would say to this…
Certifying lab-grown meat presents unique challenges due to the initial use of stem cells derived from living animals in the meat cultivation process, as consuming any part of a living animal is prohibited.
This is a mistaken approach, since none of the cells taken from the original animal are found in the final product. The final product is made up completely of cells grown in the vat. It’s like planting a seed, and then planting the seeds that grew from those seeds, and then planting the seeds that grow from that. Even if you started with seeds that were completely treif, by the fourth generation it’s completely kosher.
Is it flieshig or parve
Is it thus Pareve too?
Kidiish
Well they’re excited for the money they’ll making about supervising the lab meat…. this is a sad day.
If you’re not doomed up enough with glyphosate and GMO, look what’s coming our way….. Avalanche of illnesses and sickness we’ve been seeing the last 20 years, afraid to think of what’s coming.
We are a result of our food, there is no argument about it, somehow I need to be convinced that this is safe. Probably as safe as the covid vaccine
Alex maybe the kosher meat industry will stop over hatching. What’s the halacha about that?
Next step cannibalism with a hechsher
@Milhouse: Not so simple. Seeds that are Kil’ayim mideoraysa (such as a mix of grape seeds and wheat kernels), which need to be destroyed, cannot be “kashered” by replanting. If these seeds are planted, the entire plant grown from them is Ossur, and must be destroyed as well.
@lakewhut : Say what? What, exactly, are you talking about? Over hatching? You do understand that, unlike the non-kosher market, not every hatchling winds up as a kosher bird – plenty become treif as they grow and need to be discarded or sold for dog food.
If you’re talking about the practice of tricking chickens to lay eggs twice a day instead of their usual once-a-day cycle, this won’t stop that because those eggs are for consumption AS EGGS, and are not hatched.
And as a general rule, Halacha concerns itself only with issues that pertain to Tzaar Baalei Chaim, which is why we have responsa dealing with force-fed geese for pate and whether milk-veal is even considered Kosher. But if you’re not mistreating your animals, then what’s the issue?
Re: Milhouse
You have a very good point.
The kosher supervision industry tries, as much as possible to stay in the consensus, like hinted to in the article.
The original cells are probably not a problem, but that does not mean that they will get a ‘mehadrin’ certification. If you supervise it, why not go all the way to make everyone happy.
In the Tenuvah convention this year, Rabbi Whitman (who oversees the milk certification of Tenuvah) said that most of their Rabbis do not want to certify animal based cells, oh well.
Theres no concern this product will be found to be cancer causing? What do the “naturalists” say about this?
According to WSJ the cost of meet will have a 5% increase in cost couldn’t come in better timing, used to work in meat plants and see Cows crying right before dying.
yes @arizona,
there will be just one scandal that you’ll never be able to be metaken because it will come from the same source leolam va’ed.
Now there is a ticking time bomb until this controversy explodes and becomes the next what i call “generational politics”.
Alex, even with kilayim, by the fourth or fifth generation it’s mutar.
Alex, what you write about tzaar baalei chayim is not true at all.
“And as a general rule, Halacha concerns itself only with issues that pertain to Tzaar Baalei Chaim, which is why we have responsa dealing with force-fed geese for pate and whether milk-veal is even considered Kosher.”
You are repeating a deliberately FALSE claim, a real ziyuf hatorah. The ONLY issue with force-fed geese is tereifos. And there is NO ISSUE AT ALL with milk-fed veal. If you read the teshuva in Igros Moshe that is the only source for your claim, you will see that he says the exact opposite, that milk-fed veal is not a problem at all; Reb Moshe completely misunderstood the metzius, and was under the bizarre impression that veal calves are NOT fed on milk but on caustic substances that can cause treifos. That is the only reason he assers it. Since veal such as he describes simply does not exist and has never existed, the teshuva is not lema’aseh at all.
@AZOI.IS,
If you look in the Rambam there is a basic hashkafa that we find all over.
And that is that anything that has been touched by man cannot possibly be 100%.
It should not be perceived as a conspiracy theory or something, but if something has been played around with by humans, or so DUE to humans, then there is going to be some hole somewhere.
Moving away from the lovely excellent wholly complete eco system Hashem made for us is dumb at best and…. at worst.