Washington (EFE).- US regulators approved this Wednesday for the first time the production and sale of chicken created in a laboratory from animal cells, which opens the door to the commercialization of meat grown in laboratories throughout the country.
Specifically, the Department of Agriculture gave the green light to the companies Upside Foods and Good Meat, both from California, to be subjected to federal inspections that allow the sale of meat and poultry in the US.
Months ago, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) already declared that the two companies’ products are safe for consumption, although according to the US media, it may still take years before consumers encounter this type of meat in stores
Sale in luxury establishments
First, the companies plan to partner with upscale restaurants to offer their products, which are much more expensive to make than traditional chicken.
The two Californian companies welcomed the decision and assured that meat produced in laboratories will help create a more sustainable food industry.
“Instead of all that land and that water being used to feed all those animals that are then slaughtered, we can do things differently,” the chief executive of Eat Just, the company that operates Good Meat.
The company’s products can already be found in Singapore, the first country to allow the sale of meat created in laboratories.
Despite the novel process, which involves growing meat in steel tanks from animal cells, the resulting product is not a substitute for chicken, like plant-based vegan alternatives, but real chicken.
According to The New York Times, there are about a hundred companies in the world dedicated to the production of meat in laboratories.