FDA Finally Says Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat

https://gizmodo.com/lab-grown-meat-upside-fda-1849792440

Lab-grown meat is one big step closer to grocery store aisles and your dinner plate. The Food and Drug Administration announced its first-ever rubber stamp for a cultured meat company on Wednesday. UPSIDE Foods completed the FDA’s pre-market consultation process, and the agency found no reason to doubt the company’s safety claims.

Though technically not an “approval process” the FDA’s assessment of UPSIDE amounts to a green light for the company’s technology and production method, which uses small amounts of chicken cells + a growth medium to culture larger quantities of meat, minus the slaughter.

“We have no questions at this time regarding UPSIDE’s conclusion that foods comprised of or containing [its] cultured chicken cell material...are as safe as comparable foods produced by other methods,” the FDA wrote in its letter to the company—which is a clunky way to say: ‘sure, looks good.’

Cultured meat has been hyped up for years as a potential solution for the multitude of environmentaldownsides of standard, animal-made meat. Though some studies have called into question the actual environmental benefits of lab-grown steaks, filets, and drumsticks, the reality is it’s hard to measure the relative climate and pollution costs while “meat minus animals” has stayed mostly theoretical.

Companies have been vying for regulator approval of cultured meat in the U.S. for a long time, to no avail. Without the FDA’s blessing, no manufacturer has actually started producing their product at marketable scale. There are lots of different environmental considerations involved in accurately determining a food’s impact.

In the case of cultured meat, important factors like the land used to grow the grains included in cell growth medium and the energy needed to run these facilities are big question marks. Lots of varying estimates are out there, but until a company actually navigates those decisions and manages to make money—it’s hard to say how cultured meat’s environmental footprint compares to that of factory-farmed livestock.

In 2020, Singapore was the world’s first country to approve the sale of cultured meat. In that case, the product was Eat Just’s chicken. Wednesday’s FDA announcement isn’t quite the same thing—one specific product hasn’t gotten the go-ahead for grocery aisles quite yet. And if UPSIDE wants to sell their stuff in stores, they’ll have to navigate further oversight from the USDA and the Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Nonetheless, it’s one of the biggest steps in recent years towards expanding cultured meat from the conference-circuit sample tray to actual consumers. Well over a hundred companies and start-ups have invested in the idea that lab-grown meat could be food’s future, and now we might actually get to find out.

I'm pretty excited about the prospect of meat that has the same nutritional value, taste, and texture as regular traditional meat, but without the death and far less exploitation of animals. I was unaware that the FDA had never given their seal of approval towards lab grown meat, but I'm glad they have.

How do people here feel about this, and about lab grown meat. If you're against it, does it have anything to do with the tradition of killing animals to eat? If so, is that a tradition worth continuing?

If they can get it to taste real good I don't mind.

Is this how we get the zombie apocalypse? lol

If lab grown food was identical in taste and texture to food….. healthier and was cheaper, I’d buy it in an instant.

It isn’t any of the above.

So do we call this synthetic meat?

I'm interested to see where this goes, but not quite ready to commit to eating it. Huge potential though.

Took them long enough.

Vatgrown meat has so much more potential to be both better for the body and environment than red meat from pigs, chicken and cattle. For one, there are no antibiotics involved.

FDA has said many things were safe to eat which has turned out not to be true. FDA saying something doesn't make it true.

Pork and chicken isn't red meat.

this and a bit less salt in it to.

Chicken, no.

Pork, however, is according to most nutritionists considred a red meat.

KNOWLEDGE ARTICLE

Pork is a red meat. Oxygen is delivered to muscles by the red cells in the blood. One of the proteins in meat, myoglobin, holds the oxygen in the muscle. The amount of myoglobin in animal muscles determines the color of meat. Pork is classified a red meat because it contains more myoglobin than chicken or fish. When fresh pork is cooked, it becomes lighter in color, but it is still a red meat. Pork is classed as "livestock" along with veal, lamb, and beef. All livestock are considered red meat.

I knew someone was gonna fall for it. Which is why I said "red meat from pigs" instead of pork.

You said "red meat from pigs, chicken, and cattle" though. It's not my fault you don't know how to properly structure a sentence in English.

What I am saying is that someone who thinks that pork isnt red meat would come to try to "correct" me, only to demonstrate their own ignorance.

I put forth a little test, and you failed it spectacularly.

the world sure is moving fast. Personally I think this is a good thing for a few reasons. It will save a ton of animals from going through the suffering we put them through. Health reasons, the antibiotics. The crazy deforestation as a result of the cattle farming. The massive global warming emissions. This thing has tons of potential, but i'm not sure it will ramp up fast enough. Will wait and see.

Sounds really gross

No thank you

You also listed chicken in that. Showing you don't really know what you're talking about, only to try to turn it around to "well most nutritionalists say this..." Most nutritionalists also don't recommend going vegan but you tend to ignore that part and only promote them as an appeal-to-authority when it suits your admitted shit posting in here. Every thread about food ends up with you shit posting something stupid. Lmfao, like claiming chicken was red meat. And pork is only considered such as a technicality based on myoglobin count being higher than chicken and fish, though not as high as actual red meat, like beef, nor is it even nutritionally similar to beef which is why the culinary world considers it white.

You didn't put forth a little test, you said something stupid, got called out for it, and now you're promoting a technical classification over a nutritional one to claim you were trying to trick people, and not just talking out of your ass as per usual.

I didnt mean to say that chicken was red meat. Chicken is white meat. Maybe I should have added citation marks as to make that more clear. I apologize for not adding citation marks. But I was in a rush. But forgetting citation marks

Regarding Veganism: Is that why it is considered one of the best diets out there?

Regarding Pork: Do you EVER get tired of being wrong?

Don't try to save face. The fact is, like other red meats, most pork is really bad overall, especially at the rate in which we eat it.

Considered one of the best diets by the people you selectively listen to, maybe. Countless nutritionists and doctors say otherwise. On top of that, most vegan diets include substitutes for meat, or nutrients they need from meat in order to compensate for the lack of meat. Those substitutes have their own problems.

But again, it's always vegans demanding everyone else changes their diet to match yours, whereas the rest of us couldn't care less what you decide to eat. We just get tired of the sanctimonious, self-aggrandizing lectures that could be better envisioned as sniffing your own farts.

Veganism is irrelevant to the topic, and you are blatantly wrong. I am going by what is being accepted to be the consensus among experts, and what goes into peer reviewed papers. They overwhelmingly demonstrate the strengths and a few risks of the vegan diet. And overwhelmingly pan the SAD diet.

The SAD diet got 11 out of 100 points.

Your second paragraph shows just how little self awareness you have. I will laugh at you even harder. At no point did I push veganism on anyone. I did however mention I was a vegan earlier and which made you go berserk. My only points towards veganism have been that animal farmers hardly deserve any sympathy as their lousy industries go bankrupt and that governments should stop pushing for counterproductive regulations on vegan food alternatives. Like banning the fortification of certain foods. If you think not wanting animal industry lobbyists getting our governments to needlessly regulate our products is somehow pushing veganism on others then you are really confused. It is the meat lobbyists trying to use the state as a bludgeon against the foods us vegans eat, not the other way around.

Either way, since we are now done dealing with your off-topic rant. Let's address the nature of my post you took clear offense to.

Pointing out that cultured meat has much stronger potential to be healthy is not a vegan argument, it is one commonly hypothesized in scientific circles. Potential doesnt mean it is there just yet, however, due to a myriad of reasons, ranging from lack of disease, ablity to control fatty contents, cultured meat shows tremendous potential to be incredibly nutritious and healthy. As a society, we should encourage healthy habits. And making our meat supply actually healthy might do wonders to reduce healthcare cost by potentially billions of euro. This is especially true for us Europeans who often have universal healthcare. It is a well known fact that obese people are a massive drain on the healthcare. To reduce spending, we should want everyone to live as can, and one of the easiest way to ensure this is to increase the availability and accessabilty to healthy food.

If anyone tries to bring "lab grown meat" to the cook out I'm kicking them out, banished for eternity.

I am not going to be eating that thing unless there been millions of people eating it for 30 years without issues.

I can wait

So i hope this is very properly labeled and not mixed with real meat.

Yup, I have no problem eating actual meat. Let the hipsters take part in the medical/culinary experimentation. I'll just stick to eating actual cows and chickens.

...The funny part is the people touting this stuff are the same ones who spend extra to shop at Whole Foods so they can buy "organic" produce and free range chicken, you know, the more "natural" stuff according to them.

Sounds amazing.

But to be fair, "meat" made of soy, vegetables, mushrooms or what have you already tastes good. And to those who say "not as good", maybe stop being a little bitch who wants to keep killing animals for "a little bit better taste"?

@Litchie: vegetarian "meat" didn't tested good to me when I tried it.

On the other hand, predation has been since the cambric revolution. It's how life evolved the way it is and it's the way a large minority of animals live.

And for that matter, consuming vegetables does involve killing as well unless you are exclusively eating fruits (and planting their seeds)

I am a bit saddened towards the stigma of cultured meat. That kind of meat has so much more potential for human health than that derived from animals.

It reminds me a lot of our stigma against GMOs.

Tbh, the "meat" based recipes I have made since going vegan have been far tastier than those I ate as a carnist. Anamma's stuff has been really good for me. So even if we don't have Beyond Meat or Impossible Meat here. These are more than sufficient substitutes.

Not surprising really. While carnist farmers seem more interested in finding ways to cut corners and find ways to lobby against plant-based alternatives, plant-based culinarians are finding ways to make food that tastes better and is more nutritious. And as a result, we are seeing an explosion of vegans last decade, and veganism becoming mainstream. Plant based alternatives just ended up providing a better product.

I still consume them in moderation. Although fake meats have according to an early meta-analysis, been healthier to consume than the foods they replace, they are still highly processed stuff nonetheless. When I eat them, I use them as a supplement to whatever I eat, rather than the centerpiece. Spaghetti Bolgonese has more vegetables in it than "meat".

That's what every single person I've met says that eats a lot of meat. But the truth is, you can make vegetarian "meat" taste in 5 billion different ways, which means you can make it taste good for you. If you have a problem with the texture (which is the go-to what meat lovers say after I tell them about the taste) you can make a billion different textures as well.

Thought I hated tofu for a while (cause I think tofu without any spices tastes like crap), but then I was served good tofu and changed my mind.

That makes you sound like a very silly person.

I've tried vegan burgers. With the right seasoning it tastes just like normal meat. Cooking it was way less messy though.

Same

You are swedish, right? If so, are you also getting your Tofu from Yipin?

Also, now I am curious are you vegetarian or vegan?

I am swedish. I am not vegetarian or vegan.

I have no idea where I get my tofu. It's my girlfriend who usually gets it at a store called "asian market". Located on Hötorget, among other places.

EDIT: Just checked with the gf, we usually do Yipin, apparently. Ever tried frying tofu? It's amazeballs.

I used to fry Tofu, and it tastes really good, but I concluded that if I don't fry it, not only do I have more time for video games, but I also get more nutrients.

This is the beginning.

@Maroxad: lol, fair enough.

@Litchie: i just don't have the time to be making a very specific form of fake meat.

If i am not eating meat that day, i prefer to eat hummus, or potato salad or beans or tofu.

Also, after living in Asia for a decade, i find it funny when people speak about tofu like it's one thing.

There are 3000 forms of tofu. If you didn't like one tofu, it just meant you didn't like that one. Not that you don't like tofu.

Actually tofu (dou4fu5) is simply Chinese for fermented beans, though it's mostly soy.

I personally really don't like the mapo tofu that is very popular in the west as the texture is excessively soft.

I much prefer "you doufu" prepared in a guangxi hot pot. Though it can be fattening this way.

Having said so, i have zero intention on getting in to lab grown meat.

Even if you could make it very tasty, you can also make vegetarian food taste very tasty so what's the point?

Also I have no desire to stop eating real meat occasionally.

@nirgal: in fairness, this isn't fake meat. It's not vegetation made to look and taste like the real thing, it cells taken from animals that have been allowed to grow and multiply and cultured by giving it all the same nutrients as the animal would actually get. So it's the real deal, just grown in a different way that doesn't include a slaughter at the end.

@Serraph105: well i was speaking about impossible meat and that kind of stuff.

Not about this cultured muscle cells of animals.

But i am not sold in those either. Meat is more than simply muscle cells, it's also fat, veins, blood fixed to a bone and that has been worked by an animal for it's entire life.

I don't think they can grow independents cells in a lab and that the body will absorb them normally.

If they can copy and paste it perfectly I can only see that as a good thing. I've yet to compare artificial meat though, it's not something I'd be opposed to

In the vegan community, we generally have a strong cultural emphasis on health.

We do it primarily for the animals. But due to people like... Eoten. We also have pressure to demonstrate superior health. Not every vegan is going to live super healthy, but a lot of us will try to live as healthy as possible.

Which may partially explain why I make so many health related threads. I also really dislike when our politicians try to push for extra taxes on fat people.

Well, me neither. I just buy it, like I do with meat.

Indeed.

Fair enough. I want to try it, because I'm curious about it and just generally impressed that it's a thing.

Why not?

Is this the food for sky folks?? If there are any real humans aka people left going to the future I hope they have a real people food section and the illusionist above, because some of us really get hungry and need to eat FOOD.

I am not a sky person. Come outside and let me touch your forehead.

It's pretty fucking weird. What about those who are just naturally fat, and pretty much should be to be healthy? Those with diseases, disablilities or medications that makes them fat? I'm not sure how our politicians wants to, or how they're currently putting tax on fat people, but it sounds too weird to be good. Read that Denmark does it by selling fatter foods for a higher price. That's not too bad, I guess, but I still think your own health is your own thing to care about and no one elses. If you want to be fat, go right ahead. I'd recommend not making yourself fat if you can, but you do you.

Exactly. Punitive measures are not the solution, the solution is means to make it easier for people to lose weight. We have already seen some US states succeed with this approach.

This is also the premise of my other thread. It is not to ban people from getting fat. It is to provide measures to ensure people have the opportunity to lose weight.

@Litchie: maybe in developed countries fake or vegetarian meat is widely available, but not where I live. I would have to make vegetarian meat .

And the reason I don't think the body would absorb it so well is because the body is quite bad at absorbing nutrients that are not mixed in the complex structures we often see in nature.

It's like eating processed food where fiber has been removed or taking vitamins in a pill. The body just doesn deal well with these foods.

@nirgal: There is no evidence thus far of downsides of Cultured Meat. If anything, the lack of growth hormones, should be really good for our bodies. And the fact that cultured meat is grown in a sterile environment, means we no longer need to use an excess of antibiotics, which will slow down the inevitable tide of superbugs, currently predicted to kill 10 million annually by 2050.

@Maroxad: i rather not experiment on myself.

jesus, man. give it a rest.

If it doesn’t come from something that moos, clucks, bleats, or whatever, yeah, it ain’t entering my mouth.

Sorry, and bleeding hearts cry me a river and cut me a rib. Yeah……one of them nice juicy ones, mmmmm! Delicious!