Will We Soon Be Eating ‘Lab-Grown’ Chicken?
The USDA has just cleared the path.
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Pretty soon, we may all be chowing down on “lab-grown” or “cultivated” meat.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the sale of chicken created from the cells of the animals, clearing the way for two companies — Upside Foods and Good Meat, both based in California — to purvey it to restaurants across the country and, in time, to sell it in retail grocery stores.
“This announcement that we’re now able to produce and sell cultivated meat in the United States is a major moment for our company, the industry and the food system,” Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Good Meat and Eat Just, says in a statement following the USDA’s approval.
What Is “Lab-Grown” Meat?
Lab-grown meat is made from cells that have been selected from live animals or a fertilized egg. The cultivated cells are mixed with other ingredients (fats, sugars, amino acids, vitamins) and grown in labs in stainless-steel tanks in labs. Over the course of about three weeks, the cells mature, multiply and form sheets of chicken meat that can be turned into cutlets, nuggets, shredded chicken, sausage and satays.
What Are the Pros of Consuming Lab-Grown Meat?
The cells don't come from slaughtered animals, so that harm is eliminated. Cultivated meat also has environmental benefits because it reduces animal grazing, waste and feed growing. (There is, however, some disagreement as to its environmental benefits.) “Instead of all of that land and all of that water that’s used to feed all of these animals that are slaughtered, we can do it in a different way,” Tetrick tells the Associated Press.
What Does Lab-Grown Chicken Taste Like?
Reportedly, like chicken.
When Will You Be Able to Find Lab-Grown Chicken In Stores?
Not for a while. Cultivated meat is more expensive to produce than traditional meat and can’t yet be produced on the same scale, Ricardo San Martin, director of the Alt:Meat Lab at University of California Berkeley, tells the Associated Press.
Where Can You Try Lab-Grown Chicken?
Initially, dishes made from cultivated meat will be available in a handful of restaurants. Bar Crenn, in San Francisco, is partnering with Upside and a Jose Andrés-owned eatery in Washington, D.C., has teamed up with Good Meat.
Is Lab-Grown Meat Considered Vegetarian or Even Vegan?
Is Lab-Grown Meat Kosher or Halal?
Again, unclear.
Is Lab-Grown Meat Safe to Eat?
According to the FDA, yes. But it’s also safe to say that people may still need some convincing to eat it. Half of U.S. adults surveyed by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research say that they were unlikely to try meat grown from animal cells. The top reason they gave for their reluctance? “It just sounds weird.”
Will you be giving lab-grown chicken a try?
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