Upside Foods receives USDA label approval for its cultivated chicken meat

Picture courtesy of Upside Foods/Instagram

Upside Foods has received the USDA label approval for its cultivated chicken meat.
CEO and founder Uma Valeti shared the news on LinkedIn, writing: “UPSIDE chicken has received USDA label approval, which is a crucial step in our journey to commercialization. We’re taking a moment to celebrate the hard work and dedication our team has put into achieving this first-of-its-kind milestone, and then we’re getting right back to focusing on the last step in the pre-market regulatory process: Obtaining a Grant of Inspection for our production facility. Be sure to stay tuned for updates and more information on how you can be among the first to try our delicious cell-cultivated chicken!”

In November of 2022 the American start-up received a ‘No Question Letter’ from the FDA, signalling that the US was getting ready to approve cultured products such as meat and dairy for human consumption.

So far the FDA has sent ‘No Question Letters’ to two more cellular agriculture start-ups: the American GOOD Meat, the cultured meat brand of Eat Just, and Remilk, a cultivated dairy company from Israel. GOOD Meat received its USDA label approval on 8 June, four days before Upside Foods did.

As per the Upside Foods‘ announcement on social media, the USDA still needs to inspect the start-up’s production facility in order to issue an EPIC – a Grant of Inspection. If the USDA grants Upside Foods an EPIC, it can move to approve the sale of cultivated chicken for human consumption.

At the time of writing the only country in the world that has approved cultured meat is Singapore. GOOD Meat’s lab-grown chicken is available at restaurant 1880 and at Huber’s Butchery, whilst Remilk received regulatory approval by Singapore Food Authority (SFA) in February this year.