After a few weeks, the cells begin to adhere to one another and produce enough protein to harvest. When it’s time to start production, food scientists submerge the cells in a stainless steel vat of nutrient-rich broth containing all the ingredients cells need to grow and divide. Next the scientists can freeze the best cell lines for future use. Food scientists sample stem cells from a fertilized chicken egg and then test the cells for resilience, taste, and the ability to divide and create more cells. “We call ourselves ‘conflicted carnivores.’”Ī lab-grown chicken nugget starts the classic way: with an egg. “I put myself in that category,” says Amy Chen, COO of UPSIDE Foods. Cultured meat companies, which bill themselves as sustainable and cruelty-free, hope their products will offer a way for meat lovers to enjoy a juicy burger or fried chicken with a clean conscience. Still, people are drawn to eating meat for a variety of reasons, such as cultural significance and tradition or its nutritional value as a protein source-not to mention its taste. “We think the current way of producing meat is at the very tip of the spear of all these harms,” says GOOD Meat CEO Josh Tetrick. And the animals themselves often live relatively short lives, confined to cramped cages and standing in their own filth. What’s more, they generate tons of waste and can pollute local waterways with nutrient runoff from manure. Massive livestock operations can also be breeding grounds for harmful antibiotic-resistant bacteria. But a growing number of Americans harbor concerns about the current meat industry’s environmental impact, which accounts for about 14.5 percent of global carbon emissions. They’ll need additional approval to market cell-cultivated beef, pork or seafood.Īround 90 percent of the U.S. For now, both companies have been given the go-ahead to sell strictly chicken products at a select handful of restaurants. But it doesn’t mean lab-grown steaks will be hitting supermarket shelves tomorrow. The approval comes less than a year after the Food and Drug Administration declared the companies’ products safe to eat, and it represents a major milestone for the burgeoning cultured meat industry. It was the final regulatory thumbs-up that the California-based companies needed in order to sell and serve their products in the U.S. Both grow small amounts of chicken cells into slabs of meat-no slaughter required. Department of Agriculture granted its first-ever approval of cell-cultured meat produced by two companies, GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods. At long last, a sandwich made with lab-grown chicken may be on the menu-at least if you live in the U.S.
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