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Chicken grown from animal cells, not from slaughtered birds, can now be sold in the U.S., after the Agriculture Department issued approvals to California firms Upside Foods and Good Meat to sell the products, known as “lab-grown” or “cultivated” meat.
The goal is to eliminate harm to animals and drastically reduce the environmental impacts of raising them. The meat will initially be sold only at upscale restaurants.
Companies around the world are developing lab-grown chicken nuggets that do not involve slaughtering chickens. U.S. regulators for the first time approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer “lab-grown” meat to the nation’s restaurant tables and eventually, supermarket shelves.
The Agriculture Department gave the green light to Upside Foods and Good Meat, firms that had been racing to be the first in the U.S. to sell meat that doesn’t come from slaughtered animals — what’s now being referred to as “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” meat as it emerges from the laboratory and arrives on dinner plates.
The move launches a new era of meat production aimed at eliminating harm to animals and drastically reducing the environmental impacts of grazing, growing feed for animals and animal waste.
A manufacturing company called JOINN Biologics, which works with Good Meat, was also cleared to make the products.
Cultivated meat is grown in steel tanks, using cells that come from a living animal, a fertilized egg or a special bank of stored cells.
Good Meat, which already sells cultivated meat in Singapore, the first country to allow it, turns masses of chicken cells into cutlets, nuggets, shredded meat and satays. The companies plan to serve the new food first in exclusive restaurants. Company officials are quick to note the products are meat, not substitutes like the Impossible Burger or offerings from Beyond Meat, which are made from plant proteins and other ingredients.
Globally, more than 150 companies are focusing on meat from cells, not only chicken but pork, lamb, fish and beef, which scientists say has the biggest impact on the environment.
This article was provided by The Associated Press.