FDA approval for human consumption of lab-grown meat in the US

Lab-grown chicken passed the first hurdle needed to bring the product to US supermarkets and dinner tables.
 

The US Food & Drug Administration has for the first time given the green light to meat grown from cells. The regulator indicated Wednesday that the cultivated chicken product by Californian startup Upside Foods is safe to eat. 

“Advancements in cell culture technology are enabling food developers to use animal cells obtained from livestock, poultry, and seafood in the production of food, with these products expected to be ready for the U.S. market in the near future,” the FDA said. It added that it’s ready to work with additional firms developing cultured meat to ensure their products are “safe and lawful.” 

It’s already possible to purchase some types of lab-grown meat in the world. Two years ago, Singapore became the first nation to approve the sale of cultivated meat — a chicken nugget product made by Eat Just.

Finessing the technology and getting the cost to an affordable level is a key hurdle in turning cell-based meat into a mass consumer product. 

Nevertheless, many startups including Israel’s Aleph Farms and Singapore’s Shiok Meats are trying to get their products to market soon, as consumers increasingly seek out alternative proteins due in part to health and environmental concerns.

While Upside Foods’ chicken is cleared for human consumption, it’s not approved to be sold. The product still needs to meet other requirements from the FDA and the US Department of Agriculture before it can enter the market. 

Proponents of the cultivated meat industry, who hope to overhaul a meat production system that relies on using much of the world’s cropland to feed animals, cheered the FDA action, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“This is a critical milestone toward the future of food,” Bruce Friedrich, president of the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit think tank focused on expanding plant-based and cultivated meat, said in a statement Wednesday. “Cultivated meat will soon be available to consumers in the U.S. who desire their favorite foods made more sustainably, with production requiring a fraction of the land and water of conventional meat when produced at scale.”

The livestock industry has come under increased environmental scrutiny, since cattle are a big source of methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas. 

The food system drew more attention at the United Nations climate change conference, under way in Egypt, than in previous years.

Uma Valeti, chief executive of Upside Foods, said the FDA decision was “the biggest moment in the history of our company,” which was founded in 2015.

“People love meat and we want to preserve the choice, but do it in a more efficient and humane process,” Mr. Valeti said.

Cultivated meat is often grown in a vat, copying stem cells extracted from a live animal or from the ovaries of a newly slaughtered animal. 

The vat is also filled with serum containing amino acids, sugars and other nutrients needed for cells to grow.

Valeti said the cells are “like a starter dough” and after being grown for around three weeks, are harvested and shaped into forms familiar to consumers, like a chicken breast.

Singapore is the only country so far to have approved the sale of cultivated meat products.