Two California Companies Will Soon Sell Lab-Grown Meat

A state long known for pushing the envelope, California is once again at the center of a new technological trend: lab-grown meat.

The U.S. Agriculture Department last week approved the sale of meat grown from stem cells, a watershed moment for the alternative protein industry. To be clear, this isn’t another plant-based meat substitute like Impossible or Beyond burgers, but something that seems much closer to science fiction: actual meat cultivated from animal cells.

“This approval will fundamentally change how meat makes it to our table,” Dr. Uma Valeti, the chief executive and founder of Upside Foods, said in a statement. Upside Foods and another company, Good Meat, are the only two companies in the country that have been given the federal clearance. Both are based in the Bay Area.

“It’s a giant step forward towards a more sustainable future — one that preserves choice and life,” Valeti said.

Upside, which has facilities in Berkeley and Emeryville, has partnered with chef Dominique Crenn, who will begin to serve the company’s lab-grown chicken at her San Francisco restaurant, Bar Crenn, in the coming weeks. Good Meat, based in Alameda, plans to begin selling its own cultivated chicken to chef José Andrés to use at China Chilcano, his restaurant in Washington, D.C., company officials said.

So what, exactly, is lab-grown meat? I’ll let my colleague Kim Severson, who last year wrote an excellent deep dive on the burgeoning industry, explain:

<i>“It begins with stem cells from an animal biopsy, an egg or even a feather that multiply rapidly in a stainless steel tank called a bioreactor or cultivator. The cells feed on a complex broth that contains nutrients like carbohydrates and amino acids, and some type of growth factor, to become muscle, fat or connective tissue. Taste and nutrition are controlled by cell selection and the broth they grow in. …</i>

<i>And the taste? In the Upside Foods test kitchen, I sampled a slightly grainy chicken pâté and a perfectly round breakfast patty blended with plant-based proteins that fried up nicely. Generous seasoning masked the flavor of the meat.”</i>

The United States is only the second country to approve the sale of meat grown from stem cells; Singapore was the first in 2020. That year, Good Meat debuted cultivated meat for sale at a private club in Singapore, where the company, as Severson wrote, “tucked the meat into a bao bun and turned it into a crisp patty on a maple waffle.”

The arrival of lab-grown meat isn’t without pushback. While supporters say growing meat in tanks will bring environmental benefits and relieve animal suffering, opponents worry it could be scientifically risky and create allergens and untested byproducts.

There’s even debate about what to call this new product. Supporters prefer “cultivated” or “clean” meat, while opponents like “synthetic” or “engineered” meat. The Agriculture Department is still drafting regulations on how the products should be labeled, but for now the agency is going with “cell cultivated chicken.”

Crenn, the San Francisco chef, told The New York Times last year that she was initially turned off by the idea of cooking with cultivated meat.

“I love farmers and ranchers. That is not what I am against,” she said. “I am against factory farming. That is not sustainable.”

The first cultivated breast meat Crenn tasted was a bit mushy, she said, but the flavor reminded her of poulet rouge, a heritage breed from France.

Soon, an “exquisite signature dish” featuring the cultivated chicken will grace her restaurant’s menu.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/us/california-lab-grown-meat.html">The New York Times</a>.