Soon, Americans are going to be able to try chicken that comes directly from chicken cells rather than, well, a chicken. The United States Department of Agriculture gave Upside Foods and Good Meat the green light to start producing and selling their lab-grown, or cultivated, chicken products in the United States. It’s going to be a while before you can buy cell-based meat in stores, though you should be able to get a taste at a restaurant sooner.
In a nutshell, lab-grown meat — or cultivated or cell-based meat — is meat that is developed from animal cells and grown, with the help of nutrients like amino acids, in massive bioreactors. When the meat is ready, companies collect it from the bioreactors and move it along the processing line. For one thing, growing meat from cells means that people can eat meat without having to slaughter animals. Upside Foods explains that cells it gathers from a fertilized chicken egg are stored in its cell bank and can be used for at least ten years. Animal cells can come from animal biopsies or even feathers, among other sources.
Good Meat announced a partnership with chef and restaurateur José Andrés to bring the item to a Washington restaurant. Good Meat may consider partnering with other restaurants or launching in retail, but a supermarket launch is way down the line. Upside Foods is planning to introduce its product at Bar Crenn, a San Francisco restaurant, but did not share a launch date yet. Eventually, the company plans to work with other restaurants and make its products available in supermarkets. For now, Upside Foods is holding a contest to allow curious customers to be among the first to try the product in the United States.
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