The first cultivated, or lab-grown, meat has been approved for sale in the US.
Two California-based companies, Upside Foods and Eat Just, received grants of inspection from the United States Department of Agriculture today. It’s the final approval needed for each company to begin commercial US production and sales.
Animal agriculture makes up nearly 15% of human-caused global greenhouse-gas emissions. A growing number of companies are working to bring alternatives to market that have the potential to cut emissions.
Most meat alternatives on the market today are made using plants. Upside Foods, Eat Just, and other cultivated-meat companies instead make products using animal cells that are grown in bioreactors. Tissue samples from living animals are isolated and their cells grown in a lab. As those cells grow and multiply, they can be processed into food.
Singapore was the first country to approve cultured meat, giving Good Meat, the cultivated-meat division of Eat Just, the green light to sell its cultivated chicken in 2020. Eat Just was founded in 2011, and the company also makes plant-based products, including an egg alternative.
Today’s pair of approvals are first of their kind in the US.
