Slaughter-Free Meat Sounds Futuristic, Because It Still Is
Companies need to prove they can scale up as investors sour on projects that will take decades to develop.
The nascent industry for lab-grown meat is heading into its next stage of development after clearing a major regulatory hurdle. The question is how many companies will be left by the time any one crosses the finish line.
In November, Upside Foods received a letter from the US Food and Drug Administration saying it had no questions about the company’s conclusion that its chicken—made from cells grown in tanks—was safe to eat. “This is the moment we’ve been working for for the last seven years,” says Uma Valeti, chief executive officer of the California-based startup. “We are building a field that everyone thought was not going anywhere.”