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For all of human history, eating meat has meant slaughtering animals. But scientists behind cultivated meat say that’s no longer necessary. They produce meat by growing cells extracted from an animal’s body. And, today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave its first clearances to sell meat produced this way.
GOOD Meat, a division of Eat Just, Inc., announced that it has received approval from the USDA for its first poultry product, cultivated chicken, grown directly from animal cells, to be sold in the U.S.
« This announcement that we’re now able to produce and sell cultivated meat in the United States is a major moment for our company, the industry and the food system, » said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of GOOD Meat and Eat Just.
GOOD Meat already sells its cultivated chicken in Singapore, which in 2020 became the first country to allow commercial sales of cultivated meat.
The USDA has also cleared the sale of UPSIDE Food’s cultivated chicken. « This represents a historic step, » Uma Valeti, CEO of UPSIDE Foods, based in Berkeley, Calif., told NPR by text. The company also produces chicken grown directly from animal cells.
UPSIDE will debut with a textured chicken product, which tastes very similar to chicken breast and is made from over 99% chicken cells. I tasted it during a tour of the company’s 70,000-square-foot production facility in Emeryville, Calif, where its meat is grown in large stainless steel tanks resembling a brewery.
I was served a piece of their chicken, pan-fried in a white-wine butter sauce. My first reaction: « It’s delicious. » (Isn’t everything in wine-butter sauce?) And the texture was chewy, closely replicating the texture of chicken breast (minus bones, and tough bits or gristle.) « It tastes like chicken, » I said, to which Valeti quickly replied, « It is chicken! »
At the outset, UPSIDE Food’s facility can produce about 50,000 pounds of meat per year, with plans to expand beyond chicken, once this product is launched.
As NPR reported last fall, the U.
