The food industry in the United States has just taken a step that could transform the sector in the future. Two different companies have obtained licenses to market chicken meat that is produced without raising these animals: it is grown in stainless steel tanks from real animal cells. It is not a vegan or vegetarian food. It’s 99 percent chicken meat and it tastes like chicken.
Californian companies Upside Foods and Good Meat will be able to start selling their “cell-cultured meat”, which is developed through a fermentation process in bioreactors. The first two establishments where you can try this chicken meat are Bar Crenn -despite its name, it is a three Michelin star restaurant-, in San Francisco, and in one of the restaurants that the Spanish chef José Andrés has in Washington .
Until now, the only country that had authorized the marketing of this type of food was Singapore. Two licenses are required in the United States: one from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates food safety, and one from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which controls the processing, packaging, and labeling of food and which is the one that has just given free rein to the consumption of cultivated chicken meat to both companies.
To create cultured chicken meat, the first step is to obtain a sample of cells from a fertilized chicken egg. Of the millions of cells it contains, those considered best for constant meat production are selected. From this step a cell line is established and a large master cell bank is created which is kept frozen and samples are taken for culture.
Cultured meat is made in steel tanks by feeding one of these cell lines into a grower where it receives a nutrient mix that contains water, sugars, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and salt—the same kind that cultured meats are fed on. cells in the animal’s body.
The facilities will not allow the manufacture of large quantities of cultured meat. In earlier FDA reviews, both companies explained that they used bovine serum albumin in their growth media, although they now explain that they have devised ways to develop the meat without the need for this type of animal component.
José Andrés Andrés joined the Good Meat board of directors in December 2021. “We need to innovate, adapt our diet to a planet in crisis. We need to create meals that feed people while sustaining our communities and the environment,” explains the chef on the company’s website.
The production at the moment will be small and more expensive than meat from animal slaughter, but its defenders predict that this is the future.
