While approval is still required from USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service before commercial sales can begin, FDA’s nod brings the US a step closer to being just the second country, after Singapore, to approve lab-grown meat.
“This is a watershed moment in the history of food,” Dr. Uma Valeti, CEO and Founder of UPSIDE Foods, says in a press statement. “We started UPSIDE amid a world full of skeptics, and today, we’ve made history again as the first company to receive a ‘No Questions’ letter from the FDA for cultivated meat. This milestone marks a major step towards a new era in meat production, and I’m thrilled that U.S. consumers will soon have the chance to eat delicious meat that’s grown directly from animal cells.”
Founded in 2015, UPSIDE has developed cultivated chicken, beef, and duck. To date, it has raised $608 million.