Upside Foods Gets FDA OK for Lab Chicken

Nov. 16, 2022

The FDA has helped Upside Foods take a step closer to marketing lab-grown alternative chicken (also known as cultured meat), issuing a statement of non-objection Nov. 16 to the process Upside uses.

Pan Demetrakakes

The FDA has helped Upside Foods take a step closer to marketing lab-grown alternative chicken, issuing a statement of non-objection Nov. 16 to the process Upside uses.

The FDA stated that, after evaluating information from Upside about its cultured meat process, it “has no further questions at this time about the firm’s safety conclusion.” The agency noted that Upside’s production facility still needs to pass FDA and USDA requirements, and that the product itself will need a USDA stamp.

Upside, based in Berkeley, Calif., has been operating in the cultured meat space since 2015. It claims to have come up with the world’s first cultured meatball in 2016 and the first cultured chicken and duck in 2017.

"This is a watershed moment in the history of food," said Uma Valeti, founder and CEO of UPSIDE Foods, said in a statement. "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."

About the Author

Pan Demetrakakes | Senior Editor

Pan has written about the food and beverage industry for more than 25 years. His areas of coverage have included formulations, processing, packaging, marketing and retailing. Pan worked for Food Processing Magazine for six years in the 1990s, where he was operations editor (his current role), touring dozens of food plants of every description. He has also worked for Packaging and Food & Beverage Packaging magazines, the latter as chief editor, during which he won three ASBPE awards. He is a graduate of Stanford University with a BA in communications.