On Wednesday, the USDA gave Upside Foods and Good Meat the green light to start producing and selling their lab-grown, or cultivated, chicken products in the United States. Don’t run to the supermarket just yet, though. It’s going to be a while before you can buy cell-based meat in stores, though you should be able to get a taste at a restaurant sooner. Until then, here’s everything you need to know.
The nascent cultivated meat industry is regulated by both the USDA and the FDA. Over the past several months, the agencies have been approving the products step-by-step: In November, the FDA issued a “no questions” letter to Upside Foods, essentially saying that it had no further questions about the safety of the product, and so considers it safe for consumption. Good Meat got a similar letter in March. Then, in June, both companies got USDA approval for their labels.