LONDON, United Kingdom: Agronomics, the leading listed company in cellular agriculture, announced cultivated meat company UPSIDE Foods Inc. has received a ‘No Questions’ letter from the US regulatory body the US Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), accepting their conclusion that their cultivated chicken is safe to eat.
This is a momentous achievement for UPSIDE Foods, and a pivotal moment for the entire cultivated meat industry. This represents the first company to achieve a greenlight from the FDA in the US, and a validation of the sector shifting from research and development, towards commercialisation. We expect this to be the first of many FDA approvals for the sale of cultivated meat in the US.
The FDA’s decision is a major milestone in the evolution of the global cultivated meat sector and another step towards the commercialisation of cellular agriculture. The news comes almost two years after the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) gave regulatory approval to Eat Just’s cultivated chicken, which is now sold through its subsidiary GOOD Meat. At full-scale commercialisation, cellular agriculture has the capacity to make a meaningful contribution to the world’s food production sustainably. It is projected that by 2040, cultivated meat could reach 35% of the global meat market.
This is a timely achievement for the sector given global concerns surrounding food security and climate change, which have come to the forefront in recent years. There is an urgent need to adopt new methods for food production to combat these challenges. The Company remains confident that cell culturing technologies, and cultivated meat produced from these processes, will play a vital role in the coming decades.
Jim Mellon, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Agronomics commented: “We are extremely pleased to see the first approval of a cultivated meat product in the US. Not only is this a massive market, but the FDA is considered one of the most stringent regulatory bodies globally for food safety.
This approval is a landmark event for the field of cellular agriculture and should give investors comfort that the path to commercialisation is now clear. We look forward to news of further approvals from within Agronomics’ leading portfolio of companies.”