In a historic decision, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer “lab-grown” meat to the nation’s restaurant tables and eventually, supermarket shelves.
The regulators gave the green light to Upside Foods and Good Meat, firms that had been racing to be the first in the U.S. to sell meat that doesn’t come from slaughtered animals — what’s now being referred to as “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” meat as it emerges from the laboratory and arrives on dinner plates.
Cultured meat, also known as cultivated, cell-based or lab-grown protein, is made by putting stem cells from the fat or muscle of an animal into a culture medium that feeds the cells, allowing them to grow. The medium is then put into a bioreactor to support the cells’ growth, creating an end product that looks and tastes like traditional meat.
The move launches a new era of meat production aimed at eliminating harm to animals and drastically reducing the environmental impacts of grazing, growing feed for animals and animal waste.
Harping on the development, Josh Tetrick, co-founder and chief executive of Eat Just, which operates Good Meat, said “Instead of all of that land and all of that water that’s used to feed all of these animals that are slaughtered, we can do it in a different way”.
The approval came months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deemed that products from both companies are safe to eat. A manufacturing company called Joinn Biologics, which works with Good Meat, was also cleared to make the products.
Ricardo San Martin, director of the Alt:Meat Lab at University of California Berkeley, said cultivated chicken is much more expensive than meat from whole, farmed birds and cannot yet be produced on the scale of traditional meat.
Reports have it that the companies plan to serve the new food first in exclusive restaurants: Upside has partnered with a San Francisco restaurant called Bar Crenn, while Good Meat dishes will be served at a Washington, D.C., restaurant run by chef and owner Jose Andrés.
Upside, based in Berkeley, operates a 70,000-square-foot building in nearby Emeryville. “The most common response we get is, ‘Oh, it tastes like chicken,’” said Amy Chen, Upside’s chief operating officer.
On the other hand, Good Meat, based in Alameda, operates a 100,000-square-foot plant.
According to records, globally, more than 150 companies are focusing on meat from cells, not only chicken but pork, lamb, fish and beef, which scientists say has the biggest impact on the environment.
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