In the future, meat grown from cell cultures can be sold in the United States. After Singapore, the USA is the second country in the world where laboratory meat can be sold.
Meat grown in a lab can now be sold in the United States. The US Department of Agriculture gave final approval to sell cultured chicken to California-based Upside Foods and Good Meat.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Upside boss Uma Valeti. “It marks a new era.” For Good Meat boss Josh Tetrick, the approval also marks a milestone in the company’s history: “Now we have approval to be sold to consumers in the world’s largest economy.”
Only available in restaurants
The United States is the second country after Singapore to allow the sale of lab-grown meat. In Singapore, Good Meat’s parent company, Eat Just, had already received approval to sell laboratory meat in 2020. However, the chicken meat from cell cultures is not yet available from retail outlets in Singapore either, only in restaurants.
In the USA, too, the laboratory chicken meat will initially only be available in restaurants. The two companies already have orders from one celebrity chef each in San Francisco and Washington. After the test run in upscale gastronomy, they want to expand their production capacities – then consumers should also be able to buy the laboratory meat in the supermarket.
more environmentally friendly out as meat factory farming
Laboratory meat from cell cultures has the advantage that it contains animal proteins without having to live in factory farms and slaughter animals. The cultured meat is obtained from a sample of animal cells that are fed and grown in steel tanks.
That is why the laboratory meat is also referred to as “clean meat”: If meat is produced without factory farming, then the environmental pollution also decreases. According to research consultants CE Delft and GFI, the carbon footprint of beef can be reduced by up to 92 percent if “green” electricity from renewable sources is used for cultivation.