Two producers have received approval from the Department of Agriculture to commercialise cultured chicken meat in the United States. The first customers are not supermarkets, but starred restaurants.
Major breakthrough
Cellular meat from bioreactors is now really coming to the US market: Californian producers Upside Foods and Good Meat have received final approval from the Department of Agriculture, after food authority FDA had already given its blessing. After Singapore, the US is only the second country to approve the commercialisation of lab-grown meat
The announcement is a major breakthrough and particularly big news for the foodtech sector. Ever since 2013, when Dutchman Mark Post of Mosa Meat presented his first cultured meat burger to the press, the world has been harbouring high hopes for meat that does not require an animal to die. With a major economy like the US opening up the market, the industry can finally scale up, which will further reduce costs. Confronting a broad group of consumers will determine the further future of this industry.
Not yet in Europe
However, cultured chicken meat will not yet appear on store shelves at Food Lion or Walmart: its first customers are not supermarkets, but Michelin-star restaurants. Upside Foods has received an order from French chef Dominique Crenn of three-star restaurant Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, while Good Meat received an order from José Andrés, who runs a two-star restaurant in Washington D.C.
European customers have to be more patient, as no producer has yet submitted an application for approval to the European Food Safety Authority – and such an approval procedure would easily take at least nine months. Pioneer Mosa Meat, however, hinted a few weeks ago that it is quietly ready. The company opened a new 2,760 sqm production site for large-scale production of beef hamburgers made from cultured meat.
Culture meat is “real” meat cultivated from cell cultures in bioreactors. The final product is not only animal-friendly but also clean, safe and sustainable: compared to traditional animal husbandry, production is said to emit 80 to 90 % less greenhouse gases and it would use 45 % less energy, 90 % less water and 99 % less land. However, the cost of production is still high and scepticism is high among part of the public. Italy, for example, has already signalled its intention to ban cultured meat.
