--- title: "First Lab Grown Meat Products Approved for Sale in US" description: "Upside Foods and Good Meats received a grant of inspection from the USDA, allowing their lab-grown meat products to be sold to consumers." date: "2023-06-21" modified: "2023-06-21" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/first-lab-grown-meat-approved-sale-us" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "cultivated meat" - "food" - "lab grown meat" - "the digest" --- # First Lab Grown Meat Products Approved for Sale in US ![Upside Foods and Good Meats received a grant of inspection from the USDA, allowing their lab grown meat products to be sold to consumers.]() *\Image: Upside Foods\* ## Bite-Sized Breakthrough The US Department of Agriculture has approved two companies, Upside Foods and Good Meat, to sell their lab-grown chicken products, *Reuters* [reports](), making them the first lab-grown meats to be greenlit for sale in the country. More specifically, the USDA approval comes in the form of a grant of inspection. Strictly speaking, the grant means that the companies' meat-processing facilities are in compliance with the agency's standards and will be regularly inspected. This, in effect, allows their products to be sold at large. "This approval will fundamentally change how meat makes it to our table," Upside Foods CEO Uma Valeti said in a [statement](). "It's a giant step forward towards a more sustainable future — one that preserves choice and life." ## Blazing Trails With this major regulatory hurdle cleared, the US is now only the second country in the world to approve the sale of lab-grown meat [after Singapore](). Lab-grown, or "cultivated" meat, is touted as a more ethical alternative to traditional meat because no animals are killed or harmed to create it. As the name implies, lab-grown meat is created in bioreactors using real animal cells. And [depending on]() [who you ask](), it sort of tastes like the real thing, too. Whether it's a healthy, or even *healthier*, alternative, however, remains to be seen, but clearly, the USDA thinks it's at least [safe enough for us to eat](). ## Long Road Ahead But promises of being a more "sustainable" alternative to livestock meat be damned, at least [one study]() purports that current methods of cultivated meat production aren't any greener than obtaining meat from slaughtered livestock. The study concedes, though, that this could be vastly improved in the future. Still, even if the process is made markedly more efficient over time, taking lab-grown meat mainstream won't be easy. Industry leaders have admitted that [no one has figured out how to scale up production]() while keeping costs reasonable. Getting skeptical consumers to eat it will prove harder still. It will probably be a while before you see lab-grown meat in your local supermarket, if ever. But for now, both companies plan to publicly debut their products at a few select restaurants and locations. **More on food:** *[FDA Approves Gene-Hacked Sausages]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()