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Two brands can now sell meat made from cells in the US for the first time, according to the Department of Agriculture.
Yesterday, the USDA gave Grants of Inspection, the final approval, to Upside Foods and Eat Just’s Good Meat, which both make chicken produced from lab-grown animal cells, a process they say is more sustainable than traditional animal agriculture. The USDA earlier this month approved labels for Upside Foods and Eat Just’s Good Meat after the FDA gave both the green light via “no questions” letters that indicate the agency didn’t find anything unsafe in the cell-cultivated meat products.
Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just, said in a statement that the approval “is a major moment for our company, the industry and the food system.” Eat Just was previously the only company in the world that could sell cell-cultivated meat. It gained approval in Singapore in 2020.
Eat Just immediately began production of its first batch of products to be sold in a yet-to-be-announced restaurant in Washington, DC, owned by the José Andrés Group, according to a June 21 statement. Meanwhile, Upside Foods announced that its chicken will first be sold at San Francisco restaurant Bar Crenn.
Zoom out: 156 cell-cultivated meat and seafood companies raised a collective $896 million in 2022, per the Good Food Institute. Beyond questions regarding the scalability of the tech, time will tell whether US consumers embrace these alt-meat products. Plant-based meat sales have struggled recently, especially as consumers become more price-sensitive. Beyond Meat reported in May that its revenues continued to slip as consumers traded down to cheaper protein sources.