Regulators in the United States have approved lab-grown meat for the first time.
Specifically, the U.S. Agriculture Department has approved the sale of lab-grown chicken at restaurants.
Two California-based companies, Upside Foods and Good Meat, can now sell lab-grown chicken that they say doesn't involve the slaughter of animals. The companies refer to their lab-grown chicken as “cultured meat.”
The regulatory approval ushers in a new era of meat production aimed at eliminating harm to animals and reducing the environmental impacts of raising animals to maturity.
The approval came after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled that lab-grown chicken is safe for humans to eat.
The chicken is grown in steel tanks, using cells that come from a living animal or a fertilized egg.
Good Meat, which already sells its cultured meat in Singapore, which was the first country to approve it, turns lab-grown chicken cells into cutlets, nuggets and shredded meat.
However, lab-grown chicken is not likely to be sold in grocery stores anytime soon.
Cultured meat is more expensive than meat from real animals and it cannot yet be produced on a mass scale, which is what’s needed for grocery stores.
Globally, more than 150 companies are developing lab-grown meat from cells, not only chicken but pork, lamb, fish, and beef.
Neither Upside Foods or Good Meat are publicly traded companies
