News in brief: The United States Department of Agriculture has approved Upside Foods cell-cultivated chicken label. The cultivated meat startup now needs to meet site inspection criteria to begin selling its product in restaurants.
Upside Foods, a California-based startup that makes cultivated meat, said that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved its label on its cell-cultivated chicken. While this may not seem like a lot of progress, it actually is and makes the company the second one to get that level of approval in the country, according to a Reuters report.
This approval means that the information on the label is correct and does not necessarily mean that it is ready to enter the market. Although, in the case of Upside Foods, the United Food and Drug Administration (FDA) already cleared the chicken product for human consumption in November 2022.
The food maker plans to entice consumers through restaurants first, and in years to come, the products will begin appearing on shelves in grocery stores.
Upside Foods is not alone, although it and another startup Good Meat lead the pack in terms of regulatory clearance. There are between 5 and 8 lab-grown meat startups pushing to launch in the US.
Singapore is currently the only country in the world that has approved the commercial sale of cultivated meat. However, even there, the industry has still not quite taken off and only one restaurant sells the meat.
For US-based companies, success may not be hard to come by given that they target individuals concerned about the environmental consequences of traditional agricultural practices and vegetarians. According to one source, there are approximately 8 million vegetarians in the country, so, getting customers may not be difficult. Although, the initial pricing may make it difficult for many to afford it.
There are still other regulatory issues like site inspection and approval from the USDA, which is the final obstacle the companies have to overcome before their product is ready for the market.
Not all countries are open-minded about lab-grown meat as we reported of the Italian Agriculture minister who openly criticised it and pushed against its approval.
