Upside Foods, a Berkeley, Calif.-based cultivated meat, poultry and seafood company, has selected Glenview, Ill., a northwest suburb of Chicago, as the location for its first large-scale cultivated meat production plant. The facility will cover 187,000 square feet and produce ground cultivated chicken products when it initially begins operation.
Upside Foods said it has plans to expand to other species and whole-textured formats at the plant in the future, according to a release, potentially producing more than 30 million pounds per year of product. It will be designed to house cultivators with a capacity of up to 100,000 liters each and will be one of the world’s largest and most advanced commercial cultivated meat facilities, Upside said.
The move into Glenview coincides with Upside’s acquisition of Wisconsin-based cultivated seafood company Cultured Decadence. Upside is furthering its commitment in the region with a planned investment of more than $140 million and the creation of more than 75 new jobs. In addition, the announcement follows several milestones reached by the company, including the completion of its first U.S. consumer sale of cultivated meat, expansion of its product portfolio to include ground cultivated meat products and reaching a company valuation of more than $1 billion.
