WASHINGTON—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the first time Wednesday indicated it viewed chicken grown from cells as safe to eat, bringing cultivated meat closer to U.S. grocery store shelves.
The FDA said it had completed a premarket review of a cultivated chicken product from Berkeley, Calif.-based Upside Foods, and had no unresolved questions about its safety for humans to eat. The lab-grown chicken from Upside Foods must still get approvals from the Agriculture Department, which oversees the meat industry, before it can be sold in the U.S.
“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is committed to supporting innovation in the food supply,” FDA Commissioner
Robert Califf
and
Susan Mayne,
director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said in a statement Wednesday. “Today we are announcing that we have completed our first premarket consultation of a human food made from cultured animal cells.”
The growing cultivated meat industry said Wednesday that while there are still some regulatory hurdles remaining with the USDA, the FDA’s action Wednesday signaled a future path to market for an expanding group of foods.
“The FDA’s statement is very significant and is a foundational step in the regulatory process,” the Alliance for Meat, Poultry and Seafood Innovation said in a statement. “We expect regulatory green lights for other meat, poultry and seafood companies in the future.”
Proponents of the cultivated meat industry, who hope to overhaul a meat production system that relies on using much of the world’s cropland to feed animals, cheered the FDA action.
“This is a critical milestone toward the future of food,”
Bruce Friedrich,
president of the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit think tank focused on expanding plant-based and cultivated meat, said in a statement Wednesday. “Cultivated meat will soon be available to consumers in the U.S. who desire their favorite foods made more sustainably, with production requiring a fraction of the land and water of conventional meat when produced at scale.”
The livestock industry has come under increased environmental scrutiny, since cattle are a big source of methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas. The food system drew more attention at the United Nations climate change conference, under way in Egypt, than in previous years.
Uma Valeti,
chief executive of Upside Foods, said the FDA decision was “the biggest moment in the history of our company,” which was founded in 2015.
“People love meat and we want to preserve the choice, but do it in a more efficient and humane process,” Mr. Valeti said.
Cultivated meat is often grown in a vat, copying stem cells extracted from a live animal or from the ovaries of a newly slaughtered animal. The vat is also filled with serum containing amino acids, sugars and other nutrients needed for cells to grow.
Mr. Valeti said the cells are “like a starter dough” and after being grown for around three weeks, are harvested and shaped into forms familiar to consumers, like a chicken breast.
Singapore is the only country so far to have approved the sale of cultivated meat products.
Uma Valeti, chief executive of Upside Foods, called the FDA decision ‘the biggest moment in the history of our company.’
Photo:
DAVID SWANSON/REUTERS
Mr. Valeti said the FDA’s announcement Wednesday meant the regulatory process would now largely shift over to the USDA, which has historically regulated the meat industry.
Under an agreement between the two agencies, FDA will oversee cell collection, cell banks and cell growth in meat production. When cells are harvested, the USDA will regulate production and labeling of meat and other products made from the cells.
Upside Foods is working on a label designed to differentiate cultivated meat, the term the industry has coalesced around, from traditional meat, Mr. Valeti said.
Formerly called Memphis Meats, Upside is one of several startups attempting to produce edible meat in a lab using animal cells cultivated in large brewery-like facilities. The company privately raised $400 million from investors including the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund and Scottish fund manager Baillie Gifford, company officials said in April.
The FDA noted Wednesday that it was working with other firms developing cultivated meat and seafood and planned to issue industry guidance to help companies prepare for regulatory review.
Dutch scientist
Mark Post
unveiled the first lab-grown burger on camera before a studio audience in 2013. Thought to be an answer to climate change and animal rights concerns, lab-grown meat has faced high production costs and competition from vegetable-based meat replicas. Post’s 2013 burger cost $330,000 to make.
Industry players have debated what to call the products, with most now preferring “cultivated meat.” The FDA called Upside’s product “cultured chicken cell material,” but said it wasn’t recommending that term for common use.
The industry still faces hurdles in scaling up production of lab grown meat and making it competitive in price compared with traditional meat.
—Liz Essley Whyte contributed to this article.
Write to Kristina Peterson at Kristina.Peterson@wsj.com
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the first time Wednesday indicated it viewed chicken grown from cells as safe to eat, bringing cultivated meat closer to U.S. grocery store shelves.
The FDA said it had completed a premarket review of a cultivated chicken product from Berkeley, Calif.-based Upside Foods, and had no unresolved questions about its safety for humans to eat. The lab-grown chicken from Upside Foods must still get approvals from the Agriculture Department, which oversees the meat industry, before it can be sold in the U.S.
“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is committed to supporting innovation in the food supply,” FDA Commissioner
Robert Califf
and
Susan Mayne,
director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said in a statement Wednesday. “Today we are announcing that we have completed our first premarket consultation of a human food made from cultured animal cells.”
The growing cultivated meat industry said Wednesday that while there are still some regulatory hurdles remaining with the USDA, the FDA’s action Wednesday signaled a future path to market for an expanding group of foods.
“The FDA’s statement is very significant and is a foundational step in the regulatory process,” the Alliance for Meat, Poultry and Seafood Innovation said in a statement. “We expect regulatory green lights for other meat, poultry and seafood companies in the future.”
Proponents of the cultivated meat industry, who hope to overhaul a meat production system that relies on using much of the world’s cropland to feed animals, cheered the FDA action.
“This is a critical milestone toward the future of food,”
Bruce Friedrich,
president of the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit think tank focused on expanding plant-based and cultivated meat, said in a statement Wednesday. “Cultivated meat will soon be available to consumers in the U.S. who desire their favorite foods made more sustainably, with production requiring a fraction of the land and water of conventional meat when produced at scale.”
The livestock industry has come under increased environmental scrutiny, since cattle are a big source of methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas. The food system drew more attention at the United Nations climate change conference, under way in Egypt, than in previous years.
Uma Valeti,
chief executive of Upside Foods, said the FDA decision was “the biggest moment in the history of our company,” which was founded in 2015.
“People love meat and we want to preserve the choice, but do it in a more efficient and humane process,” Mr. Valeti said.
Cultivated meat is often grown in a vat, copying stem cells extracted from a live animal or from the ovaries of a newly slaughtered animal. The vat is also filled with serum containing amino acids, sugars and other nutrients needed for cells to grow.
Mr. Valeti said the cells are “like a starter dough” and after being grown for around three weeks, are harvested and shaped into forms familiar to consumers, like a chicken breast.
Singapore is the only country so far to have approved the sale of cultivated meat products.
Uma Valeti, chief executive of Upside Foods, called the FDA decision ‘the biggest moment in the history of our company.’
Photo:
DAVID SWANSON/REUTERS
Mr. Valeti said the FDA’s announcement Wednesday meant the regulatory process would now largely shift over to the USDA, which has historically regulated the meat industry.
Under an agreement between the two agencies, FDA will oversee cell collection, cell banks and cell growth in meat production. When cells are harvested, the USDA will regulate production and labeling of meat and other products made from the cells.
Upside Foods is working on a label designed to differentiate cultivated meat, the term the industry has coalesced around, from traditional meat, Mr. Valeti said.
Formerly called Memphis Meats, Upside is one of several startups attempting to produce edible meat in a lab using animal cells cultivated in large brewery-like facilities. The company privately raised $400 million from investors including the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund and Scottish fund manager Baillie Gifford, company officials said in April.
The FDA noted Wednesday that it was working with other firms developing cultivated meat and seafood and planned to issue industry guidance to help companies prepare for regulatory review.
Dutch scientist
Mark Post
unveiled the first lab-grown burger on camera before a studio audience in 2013. Thought to be an answer to climate change and animal rights concerns, lab-grown meat has faced high production costs and competition from vegetable-based meat replicas. Post’s 2013 burger cost $330,000 to make.
Industry players have debated what to call the products, with most now preferring “cultivated meat.” The FDA called Upside’s product “cultured chicken cell material,” but said it wasn’t recommending that term for common use.
The industry still faces hurdles in scaling up production of lab grown meat and making it competitive in price compared with traditional meat.
—Liz Essley Whyte contributed to this article.
Write to Kristina Peterson at Kristina.Peterson@wsj.com
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8