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Instead of being raised on a farm or ranch, your meat could soon be grown in petri-dishes in a high-tech laboratory.<\/p>\n
An Israeli company called Future Meat Technologies has built its first lab-grown meat plant, in which it plans to use bioreactors to churn out cell-cultured meat for American restaurants.<\/p>\n
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The company, which is in talks with the FDA and USDA, plans to begin shipping the\u00a0 test-tube meat to the United States by the end of 2022,\u00a0Bloomberg reports<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Also known as\u00a0cellular meat<\/a><\/strong>, production of the product involves retrieving stem cells from a live animal\u2019s muscles and then \u201cculturing\u201d them in a nutrient-rich liquid.<\/p>\n The clusters of multiplying cells grow around a \u201cscaffold,\u201d which helps the tissue take on a desired shape \u2014 nuggets or patties, for example.<\/p>\n \u201cThe result is a product that looks and tastes like meat because it\u2019s made from animal cells, rather than plant-based products,\u201d the industry boasts.<\/p>\n The FDA and USDA\u00a0quietly gave lab meat the green light back in 2018<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n In a\u00a0press release,<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0the agencies announced that the FDA would oversee \u201ccell collection, cell banks, and cell growth and differentiation,\u201d while the USDA would oversee the production and labeling of the \u201cpoultry and livestock\u201d products.<\/p>\n Tyson and Cargill are the\u00a0top two investors\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>in lab-grown animal protein technology so far.<\/p>\n The American Meat Science Association\u00a0worries\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>that lab-grown protein is not as safe or nutritious as traditional meat.<\/p>\n