Three California-based businesses received approval from the Agriculture Department on Wednesday to begin producing and selling lab-grown chicken in the United States. This move brings the no-slaughter protein one step closer to being served on American dinner plates.
Upside Foods, Good Meat, and Good Meat’s manufacturing partner, Joinn Biologics, were the first businesses aiming to introduce the eagerly anticipated product to the American market when the USDA announced that it had granted them inspection permits.
These businesses grow edible flesh in bioreactors under controlled conditions from viable animal tissue and claim that the flesh will be identical to that raised conventionally. Climate change can be mitigated through alternatives to traditional animal agriculture; however, how much they will differ from traditional ranching is debatable, in part because it is difficult to predict how such a young industry will expand.
The news on Wednesday came after the USDA said this month that the labels for Good Meat and Upside Foods had been approved. The USDA has also approved the packaging term “cell-cultivated chicken.” Also, in November, the Food and Drug Administration said that Upside made a meat product that was safe for people to eat. This means that products made from real animal cells that don’t have to be killed can now be sold in restaurants and grocery stores in the United States.
According to the FDA, cultivated meat can be consumed safely. Dozens of major food companies are eager to introduce cultivated meat to the American public. Only Singapore has allowed the legal sale of these products to consumers.
All commercially sold meat and poultry must undergo routine safety and labeling inspections under U.S. law. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the USDA places inspectors in slaughterhouses, processing plants, and, for the first time ever, facilities that produce cultivated meat and poultry in order to accomplish this.
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A USDA spokesperson stated, “Applications are approved following a rigorous process that includes evaluating a company’s food safety system.” FSIS has granted the first three grants of inspection to businesses that produce products derived from animal cells that are regulated by FSIS on the basis of this review. FSIS inspects a facility at least once per shift after it receives an inspection grant to ensure that safe and properly labeled products are produced there.
Uma Valeti, Upside’s CEO, stated that this represents a paradigm shift in meat production and a goal the company has worked toward since 2015. The company intends to begin selling its products in restaurants: San Francisco’s Bar Crenn.
Valeti stated, “We’re also running a social media contest for a chance to be one of the first in the United States to try our cultivated chicken.”
“Launching our cultivated chicken in a restaurant setting is the perfect way to introduce consumers to real meat that’s made in a new way,” acclaimed chef José Andrés will serve Good Meat at one of his dining rooms in D.C. “It’s a dream come true to be able to do that with José Andrés, one of the most renowned chefs in the world,” stated Andrew Noyes, head of global communications for the company.
How to cook the steaks: Noyes stated that restaurants in Singapore have been serving the company’s cultivated chicken since 2020 and that restaurant chefs are an effective introduction to a new food category for many consumers who may be a little squeamish. The first 3-D-printed rib-eye steak has been unveiled.
However, there are additional advantages to starting in a restaurant: price and scale. These businesses may take years to be ready to supply regional grocery store chains with products that can compete with traditional animal agriculture products in price.
However, Dan Glickman, a member of the Good Meat advisory board who is also a former secretary of agriculture and congressman, stated that the approval on Wednesday demonstrates that the United States of America is a global leader in the alternative protein sector. He commended the USDA for its determination to speed up agricultural innovation and economic opportunity.
The two food regulatory agencies’ management of this completely new food group is encouraging to even the traditional meat industry, which has fought with alt-meat over label language and other issues.
According to Julie Anna Potts, chief executive of the North American Meat Institute, “We have worked closely with Upside Foods to create a level regulatory playing field ensuring that USDA had a role to play in oversight of both traditional meat and cell-cultivated products.” We anticipate collaborating with Upside on future innovations.
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Clear Insight Research journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.