Two California companies will soon be selling lab-grown meat

USA

Upside, with locations in Berkeley and Emeryville, is teaming up with executive chef Dominique Crenn, who will serve the company’s lab-grown chicken at its San Francisco restaurant, Bar Crenn, in the coming weeks. Alameda-based Good Meat plans to start selling its home-raised chicken to chef José Andrés for use Chinese Chicanohis restaurant in Washington, D.C., company officials told me.

So what exactly is home-grown meat? I’ll let my colleague Kim Severson, who wrote an excellent deep dive on the nascent industry last year, explain:

“It starts with stem cells from an animal biopsy, an egg or even a feather that multiply rapidly in a stainless steel tank called a bioreactor or cultivator. The cells feed on a complex broth containing nutrients such as carbohydrates and amino acids, and some kind of growth factor, to become muscle, fat or connective tissue. Taste and nutrition are controlled by cell selection and the broth in which they grow. …

And the taste? In the Upside Foods test kitchen, I tasted a slightly gritty chicken pâté and a perfectly round breakfast pate mixed with vegetable proteins that baked nicely. Generous spices masked the flavor of the meat.

The United States is only the second country to approve the sale of stem cell meat; Singapore was the first in 2020. That year, Good Meat debuted cultured meat for sale at a private club in Singapore, where the company, as Kim wrote, “put the meat in a bao bun and turn it into a crispy waffle patty.” .”

The advent of lab-grown meat is not without backlash. While supporters say growing meat in tanks will bring environmental benefits and alleviate animal suffering, opponents fear it could be scientifically risky and create allergens and untested by-products.

There is even discussion about what to call this new product. Proponents prefer “cultured” or “clean” meat, while opponents like “synthetic” or “engineered” meat. The agriculture department is still drafting regulations on how the products should be labeled, but for now the agency is going for ‘chicken in cells’.

Crenn, the San Francisco chef, told The New York Times last year that she was initially averse to the idea of cooking with cultured meat.