Breaking good news! Slaughter-free meat

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

UPSIDE Foods Inc has just received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for the marketing of lab-grown meat. In a nutshell, this means the availability of real chicken (and in the future, beef, porc, or duck), grown from animal cells in a laboratory, without hurting, force-feeding, or slaughtering animals.

The UPSIDE Foods Inc website makes it all sound very easy. Primary cells from a chicken, or fertilized egg, are sampled. Ideal cells for establishing a commercial cell line are selected. The cells are nourished with a proprietary cell-culture medium. Then, the cells are cultivated, in a cultivator, at the right temperature and oxygen levels. About three weeks later, the cultivated tissue is harvested from the cultivator, and any leftover cell medium is removed. Currently, the resulting tissue is chicken muscle. In the future, the harvested tissue might be beef, duck, or porc, each product ready to be “inspected, prepared, packed, served, and enjoyed”.

Indeed, the fabrication process even appears easier than the problem of scaling production for mass consumption. At the end of the day, many people, not necessarily vegetarians, are eagerly waiting for 100% real meat that is also 100% cruelty-free (i.e.; does not involve killing any animals).

UPSIDE Foods Inc meat is a patented invention. At least three patent applications recite the UPSIDE Foods Inc cultivated meat invention, each patent awarded to groups of scientists at UPSIDE Foods Inc:

• US20210235733A1 - Characteristics of meat products.
• US20220073870A1 - Nutrient media for the production of slaughter-free meat.
• US20220333081A1 - Generation of cell-based products for consumption that comprise proteins from exotic, endangered, and extinct species.

Below, an UPSIDE Foods Inc image of harvested chicken tissue, both raw, and prepared for delectable human consumption. 

References

Reynolds, M. (Nov. 16, 2022). A Lab-Grown Meat Startup Gets the FDA’s Stamp of Approval. Wired Magazine.

https://www.wired.com/story/lab-grown-meat-approval/

UPSIDE Foods Inc. (website)
https://upsidefoods.com/