Slaughter-Free, Cell-Cultured Chicken Set To Debut In The USA This Year
For years, we’ve been getting teasers of what lab-grown meat could look like, with videos and commentary on cell-cultured meatballs, fried chicken, and more promising a future where meat could be made without killing animals.
That future could take a monumental step forward this year, as Memphis Meats, which just changed its name to Upside Foods, announced that it plans to debut a cell-cultured chicken in the USA by the end of 2021.
Upside’s product, called Upside Chicken, is made by taking a sample of chicken cells and placing it in a nutrient-rich environment. The cells have everything they need to grow on their own and develop into chicken meat.
Claims that Upside makes about this chicken is that it could have a massive impact from a sustainability point, and also limits bacterial contamination since the meat is “cultivated in a clean facility from cell to harvest.” The company is also working with the USDA and the FDA to ensure quality standards of production are met.
Similar to a plant-based meat purveyor like Impossible Foods or Beyond Meat, Upside’s goal is to limit the environmental impact of modern meat production. Instead of taking out meat entirely, however, Upside is using a slaughter-free method that makes the exact same chicken we all know and readily consume.
Pending regulatory approval, Upside plans to launch their chicken product by the end of the year, although no official launch date has been confirmed as of yet. Upside has confirmed to Foodbeast, however, that the plan is to debut their cultured meat in restaurants first.
What we do know, however, is that previous studies have shown that at least a third of Americans are open to trying the product, meaning there is a market and a possibility that cultured meat weaves itself into the future of how we produce and eat meat.
