Lab-grown chicken declared ‘safe’: ‘Historic decision for food industry’
A lab-grown meat product in the US has been declared safe for human consumption.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved cell cultured chicken after ‘careful review’.
This chicken is produced in steel cans by a company called Upside Foods. To make it, cells from living animals were grown in his lab.
The product can be sold after a review by the US Department of Agriculture.
The FDA has said it made the decision based on information and data provided by the company and that there are currently no questions about it.
“We started Upside Foods at a time when a lot of people were against it,” said Uma Waliti, the company’s head. Today we got FDA approval for our cultured meat.
However, Upside Foods has to overcome several hurdles before selling its products. The location where the food is prepared, for example, would need a permit, but Valiti said the FDA’s approval is “a historic moment” for the food industry.
Growing interest in the lab-grown meat industry
Many startup companies are trying to develop similar products. They claim that in this way carbon emissions can be reduced and water can be saved in food production. This will also leave room for natural processes.
Scientists say that the pressure on the earth can be reduced by more than 80 percent by producing such food compared to the typical European food.
It is predicted that cultured meat products will occupy a large place in the total sales of meat in the future.
A similar company in Singapore, EatJust, received approval in 2020 for its synthetic ‘clean meat’. Its engineered nuggets are produced in a lab and use animal muscle cells.
Israel-based Future Meat Technologies and Impossible Foods are two of the largest companies in this sector. The Impossible Foods burger was introduced in 2016 and has grown in popularity.
This led to the company’s deal with the fast food chain Burger King, and in the US it now sells a burger called the Whopper.
Ernest Van Orso, head of Rosslyn Technologies, a Scotland-based food tech company, called the FDA approval a historic moment.
“It’s interesting that global watchdogs are now concluding that lab-grown meat is safe for human consumption,” he says.
According to him, the FDA has conducted a science, convenience and risk-based assessment for this approval to monitor this new substance in the food industry.
He says the move will “increase investment and innovation” in the cultured food industry.
