At the end of last year, Upside Foods opened a meat processing plant. Workers at the $50 million facility just outside Berkeley grow small clumps of animal cells in large vats for two weeks and then grow them into chicken breasts and steaks. The flesh is manufactured and no animal is slaughtered in the process. The company hopes that consumers will be able to buy the meat it makes sometime in 2022.
Real meat is not a plant-based alternative. The techniques used to grow it are well developed, but the problem for startups is producing the meat in large quantities while achieving the smell, texture, and mouthfeel diners expect.
The processing facility of Upside Foods is in Berkeley, Calif.
After seven years of work, Upside says it is ready to release 50,000 pounds of food from the California plant. The chief executive officer and co- founder says they want to be able to ship product from here nationally and internationally. He says that Upside can make any meat product, but it will focus on chicken nuggets and chicken breasts first, and then anything else. The Upside chicken breast smelled and looked like grilled chicken when I tried it last year. The texture was softer and less juicy, but it tasted like it.
The CEO of Upside Foods is Uma Valeti.
I had to sign a waiver for my taste test. Before the public gets a chance to try it, Upside needs approval from the U.S. regulators. The Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration have spent three years figuring out how they will monitor the meat industry, visiting laboratories and examining every process companies use to make their products.
There are many unanswered questions about how the meat should be transported and stored, and how often the vats should be cleaned.
There is a question of what to call it. In November, the agencies asked interested parties to chime in on what meat that has been raised in a vat should be called. Some people have pushed for a different type of meat, such ascultivated meat or less appetizing alternatives.
Those hoping the products will be approved by the U.S. agencies are encouraged by the deliberations. The National Institute for Cellular Agriculture was created by the USDA in order to back research in the field and turn the U.S. into a leader in manufactured meat. Chase Purdy, author of Billion Dollar Burger: Inside Big Tech's Race for the Future of Food, says that there has been haggling over the regulatory framework, but these are signs that the agencies are really close.
A dish with lab-grown chicken.
It is possible to purchase some types of meat. In December 2020, Singapore became the first nation to approve the sale of cultivated meat. Israel's Aleph farms will have vat-grown thin-cut steaks by the end of the year. BlueNalu Inc. and Wildtype hope to sell seafood products. Eat Just Inc. is selling chicken in Singapore.
The introduction of cultured meat has been met with resistance from the beef ranchers and their lobbyists. The U.S. is interested in becoming an early leader in the industry because of the regulatory activity and hundreds of millions of dollars invested in American startups. It might be a perfect storm that will make the US the next country to allow cultured meat.
Can lab-grown meat be kosher or not?
All Rights Reserved © 2024
