It’s been an eventful few days for cultivated meat.
After getting the final regulatory green light from the USDA to serve cultivated meat to U.S. consumers, UPSIDE Food’s cultivated chicken showed up on menus for the first time this weekend at Bar Crenn. The event, hosted on Saturday, July 1st, marked the first time cultivated meat has gone on sale in the U.S.
Here’s how the special menu, prepared by famed French chef Dominique Crenn, was described by the press release sent to The Spoon: Diners at this historic meal were served UPSIDE Foods’ cultivated chicken, fried in a Recado Negro-infused tempura batter and accompanied by a burnt chili aioli. Served in a handmade black ceramic vessel adorned with Mexican motifs and Crenn’s logo, the dish was beautifully garnished with edible flowers and greens sourced from Bleu Belle Farm. It reflects the global benefit that Chef Crenn sees in cultivated meat – with UPSIDE Chicken from the Bay Area in California, tempura from Japanese traditions, and an infusion of Recado Negro from Mexico’s Yucatan.
Just a few days later, on July 5th, the Dutch government approved a ‘code of practice’ to allow tastings of cultivated meat to occur within tightly regulated environments, an agreement that precedes the E.U. novel food approval. The code of practice was done in consultation with Dutch cultivated meat companies Mosa Meat and Meatable, along with HollandBIO.
This agreement makes the Netherlands the first country in the European Union to make pre-approval tastings of food grown directly from animal cells possible before a broader E.U. novel food approval. Cellulaire Agricultuur Nederland, a group created to implement a €60M award from the Dutch National Growth Fund, will be responsible for implementing the code of practice, which will include the hiring of an expert panel to evaluate requests by companies to conduct tastings of cultivated meat and seafood.
In many ways, 2023 is shaping up to be a critical year for cultivated meat, as governments seem to finally be comfortable with producing meat in giant metal vats. With approval in hand, companies like UPSIDE and Mosa Meat will continue to work on scaling up to larger production plants and creating lower-cost and ever-more climate-friendly techniques for producing meat in bioreactors.
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