The United States granted approvals to two companies to grow lab-grown chicken on Wednesday, reported a story published by Agence France-Presse (AFP) yesterday. The companies are Good Meat and Upside Foods, both based in California.
According to a statement released by Upside Foods, the lab-grown chicken passed the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s label approval, thus declaring that the chicken was safe to eat. They also received a grant of inspection, allowing the company to process, package, and sell lab-grown meat.
The Instagram page of Good Meat (@goodmeatinc) shared a post about the approval saying their meat is ‘declared safe to eat and produce in the United States’. Upside Foods posted on Instagram saying, “This is a historic, world-changing, moment and brings our vision of a more humane, sustainable future one giant bite closer to reality.”
In a statement released by Good Meat, they announced they would be partnering with chef and philanthropist José Andrés to bring the lab-grown meat to one of his restaurants in Washington D.C.
Andrés, who joined the company’s board of directors in 2021, said in the statement, “We need to innovate to create meals that feed people at the same time as we sustain our communities and environment,”
The United States will be joining countries that have already approved the development of lab-grown meat. For example, in 2020, Singapore gave the go ahead for lab-grown meat to be available for public sale. Good Meat has already gotten multiple approvals to sell its chicken in Singapore.
Although lab grown meat has attracted a lot of attention because it’s considered to be environmentally sustainable, there are studies that say otherwise. A 2022 study by the University of California has found that producing lab-grown meat in large scale is more energy intensive and expensive compared to beef. Therefore, it has the potential to add to global warming.
With inputs from AFP.
