KFC Plans 3D-printed Chicken Nuggets

(RTTNews) - KFC, a Yum! Brands Inc. company, teamed up with a Russian biotechnological research laboratory to bring out 3D-printed chicken products with lab-grown meat. The project aims to create the world's first laboratory-produced chicken nuggets.

The chicken restaurant brand hopes to receive a final product for testing in the fall of 2020 in Moscow.

The company said it is joining with bioprinter maker 3D Bioprinting Solutions, founded by Russian private medical company INVITRO, to use the 3D bioprinting technology to create chicken meat, called as 'meat of the future.'

Raisa Polyakova, General Manager of KFC Russia & CIS, said the company is working to make it available to thousands of people in Russia and, if possible, around the world.

3D Bioprinting Solutions is developing additive bioprinting technology using chicken cells and plant material, reproducing the taste and texture of chicken meat almost without involving animals in the process. Biomeat has the same microelements as the original product, and it will create a cleaner final product excluding various additives that are used in traditional farming and animal husbandry.

Meanwhile, KFC will provide all the necessary ingredients, such as breading and spices, to achieve the signature KFC taste.

According to KFC, the lab-produced nuggets will be as close as possible in both taste and appearance to the original KFC product. The latest products will be more environmental-friendly to produce than ordinary meat, and more ethical as the production process does not cause any harm to animals.

KFC said its innovative concept of creating a "restaurant of the future" is in response to the growing popularity of a healthy lifestyle and nutrition, the annual increase in demand for alternatives to traditional meat, and the need to develop more environmental-friendly methods of food production.

According to a study by the American Environmental Science & Technology Journal, the technology of growing meat from cells has a minimal negative impact on the environment. It allows energy consumption to be cut by more than half, greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced 25-fold, and 100 times less land to be used than traditional farm-based meat production.

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are currently making plant-based meat alternatives, which are sold through supermarkets and fast-food chains, including KFC.