Lab-grown meat gains legal approval and consumer interest in the US.
The US Department of Agriculture has ruled that cultured chicken is safe to eat and legal to sell. Two California-based companies, Upside Foods and Good Meat, have received FDA approval for their lab-grown chicken. Upside Foods plans to produce 50,000 pounds of meat per year, while Good Meat is building a demonstration plant in Singapore and plans to build a large-scale facility in the US with an annual production capacity of 30 million pounds of meat. Educating consumers on how cultured meat is made could help overcome skepticism, but the industry still faces challenges related to cost, scalability, and environmental impact.