José Andrés will be one of the first chefs in America to dish up “lab chicken” to patrons at one of his Washington D.C. restaurants. It is unclear which of his many eateries will serve the new product.
The world-renowned restaurateur’s announcement followed the USDA’s approval for sale of cell-cultivated poultry in dining establishments. It will likely take years to bring the product to grocery store shelves.
Cultured-cell, also known as “cultivated” or “lab-meat” is harvested in steel bioreactors from animal stem cells that are fed a combination of oxygen, vitamins, sugars, and fats.
“The future of our planet depends on how we feed ourselves…and we have a responsibility to look beyond the horizon for smarter, sustainable ways to eat. Good Meat is doing just that, pushing the boundary on innovative new solutions, and I’m excited for everyone to taste the result” said Andrés.
Good Meat and Upside Foods will be the first corporations in the U.S. to bring meat to market that doesn’t come from slaughtered animals. World Central Kitchen founder, Andrés joined Good Meat’s Board of Directors in 2021.
“Instead of all of that land and all of that water that’s used to feed all of these animals that are slaughtered, we can do it in a different way” said Josh Tetrick, co-founder of Eat Just, which operates Good Meat.
Eliminating harm to animals and reducing environmental impacts of traditional farming serve as the backbone of reasoning for lab-meat. However, the life-cycle analysis of contemporary meat-growing methods revealed that culture-cell meat production processes could potentially emit between four and 25 times more carbon dioxide than standard beef farming, depending on the employed procedures.
While lab-grown meat requires less land, water, and antibiotics, the environmental costs of the specific nutrients for rapid product growth are high. These include harvesting crops for vitamins and sugar, as well as lab operations to facilitate the extraction of growth factors from animal serums.
Numerous companies’ lab-grown chicken and beef have drawn both positive and negative attention, and a small number of corporations have ventured into the business of cull-cultivated seafood.
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