Iowa & Illinois, Would You Try This New Lab-Grown Meat?

A new development in the food world is changing the way some people eat meat.

For the first time, U.S. regulators today approved the sale of chicken that's made from animal cells, according to AP News. It lets two companies in California (Upside Foods and Good Meat) offer the lab-grown chicken meat to restaurants and eventually grocery stores.

The goal of the push for lab-grown meat is to eliminate harm to animals and also cut back on the environmental impacts of animal grazing.

The AP says that the cultivated meat is grown in steel tanks from cells that came from a living animal or a fertilized egg. For Upside Foods, the meat comes out in large sheets that are cut and formed into shapes resembling chicken cutlets or sausages. Good Meat turns the cultivated chicken into cutlets, nuggets, shredded meat, and satays.

For visual reference, here's the newly approved cultivated chicken:

Would you try it? Unmarinated, it looks kind of paler than standard chicken and I'm pretty hesitant honestly. But it doesn't look like we will see the cultivated meat on supermarket shelves soon. The cultivated chicken is expensive (go figure) and it can't yet be produced on the same large scale that traditional meat can. First, the cultivated meat will be served in an exclusive deal with select restaurants in Washington D.C. and San Francisco.

The companies mention that the lab-grown meat is actual meat and it isn't the same as the meat substitutes like the Impossible Burger or plant-based protein.