After Singapore, US now approves sale of lab-grown meat in restaurants, grocery stores

The US government’s approval to two California-based companies is being seen as a huge step for the alternative protein industry.

A view shows a cooked piece of cultivated chicken breast created at the Upside Foods plant, where lab-grown meat is cultivated, in Emeryville, California, US | Reuters/Peter DaSilva/File Photo

New Delhi: The United States government has approved the production and sale of laboratory-grown meat for the first time in the country.

The approval, which came Wednesday, allows two California-based companies — Good Meat and Upside Foods — to sell meat produced from animal cells to restaurants and eventually grocery stores for direct consumption.

With this, the US has become the second country, after Singapore, to allow the commercial sale of lab-grown chicken. In Singapore, lab-grown meat was allowed to be sold by US-based company Eat Just in 2020. Since then, lab-grown meat has been sold in Singapore’s restaurants, at premium prices.

The US government’s decision is being seen as a huge step for the alternative protein industry. Uma Valeti, the chief executive and founder of Upside Foods, has been quoted as saying, “It’s a giant step forward towards a more sustainable future — one that preserves choice and life.”

Lab-grown meat is cultivated using animal cells that are fed water, salt and nutrients, and allowed to multiply in large tanks. It is considered safer since it involves no animal slaughter and has a lesser impact on the environment during production.

The approval process that Upside Foods and Good Meat went through involved clearances from the Department of Agriculture, and the US Food and Drug Administration to assess if the products were safe for human consumption and production.

Currently, the two companies that have received approval are going to offer their chicken to consumers only in high-end restaurants in California where people are likely to “be more open to the steep prices” of lab-grown meat.

Critics, however, have flagged some issues with the global adoption of cultivated meat. One of them being the cost of production — Eat Just produces around 3 kg of meat per week at a restaurant in Singapore, while almost 4,000 kg of conventional meat is consumed weekly in the same eatery. For cultivated meat to be adopted globally, production needs to come close to the global consumption of meat, which is currently at 300 million tons and is expected to grow.