On November 16, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the completion of its first pre-market consultation for a human food made from cultured animal cells.

UPSIDE Foods uses animal cell culture technology to take living cells from chickens and grow the cells in a controlled environment to create the cultured animal cell food.  FDA conducted a pre-market consultation with UPSIDE Foods to evaluate its production process and cultured cell material and concluded that it has no further questions about UPSIDE Foods’ safety conclusion.

Following FDA’s approval and facility registration for the cell culture portion, the company will also need a grant of inspection from the United States Dept. of Agriculture Food and Safety Inspection Service (USDA FSIS) for the manufacturing establishment.  USDA FSIS must inspect the product before it enters the market.