FDA says lab-grown meat is safe to eat | USA TODAY

The Food and Drug Administration completed its very first pre-market consultation, siding with Upside Foods that lab-grown meat is safe to eat.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has determined that a California company's lab-grown meat is safe to eat. The FDA announced its first-ever pre-market consultation "for a human food made from cultured animal cells" this week – accepting Upside Foods' conclusion that the company's cultivated chicken is safe to eat.

Lab-grown meat – which is also referred to as cell-based, cultured or cultivated meat – is meat made using animal cells. Upside Foods will make its cultivated chicken, for example, by taking living cells from chickens and growing those cells in a controlled environment (outside the animal's body) to make cultured cuts of meat, the FDA notes.

Upside Foods is the first company to receive a "no further questions" letter from the FDA for lab-grown meat, according to a Wednesday press release. "This is a watershed moment in the history of food," Dr. Uma Valeti (MD), CEO and Founder of Upside Foods, said in a statement. "This milestone marks a major step towards a new era in meat production, and I'm thrilled that U.S. consumers will soon have the chance to eat delicious meat that's grown directly from animal cells."

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