UPSIDE Foods

Upside Foods, Florida You've Been Served

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Company News

Institute for Justice and UPSIDE Foods File Lawsuit Against State of Florida

In partnership with the cultivated chicken company UPSIDE Foods, the Institute for Justice (IJ) has filed a lawsuit against the Florida law banning cultivated meat. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill prohibiting the production, distribution, and sale of cultivated meat in the Sunshine State on May 1, 2024, and it went into effect on July 1. The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida, argues that the ban on cultivated meat violates Constitutional provisions against protectionist measures “designed to favor in-state businesses at the expense of out-of-state competitors,” IJ stated. Here you can view a video created by IJ discussing the firm’s National Food Freedom initiative. The video features attorney Paul Sherman and Upside CEO Uma Valeti speaking on …

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UPSIDE Foods is hosting a free one-night-only pop-up in Miami to offer cultivated chicken before Florida's cultivated meat ban takes effect on July 1, 2024.

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Cultivated Meat

UPSIDE Foods Hosts Free Cultivated Chicken Tasting Before Florida’s Ban

UPSIDE Foods, the first company to introduce a cultivated meat product in the USA,  announces that it is hosting a free, one-night-only pop-up tasting in Miami, on June 27, starting at 6:30 pm (ET). The event aims to celebrate “freedom of food” and allow Floridians to taste cultivated meat before the ban prohibiting the production and sale of cultivated meat in Florida takes effect on July 1, 2024. At the pop-up, participants will have the opportunity to taste UPSIDE’s cultivated chicken on a first-come, first-served basis. The address has not been disclosed; to obtain it, contact [email protected]. Dr. Uma Valeti, CEO and founder of UPSIDE Foods, commented, “We believe that cultivated meat is an essential part of the future of food and that people should have …

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Cultivated, Cell-Cultured & Biotechnology

Cultivated Meat: Approvals and Prohibitions Since Singapore’s Pioneering Step in 2020

Since Singapore became the first country to approve cultivated meat in 2020, a favorable regulatory environment has been growing in some nations while others have opted to ban the technology. Currently, worldwide, 174 companies are developing cultivated meat from cells, rather than farming animals or fishing. This milestone signifies a major achievement for an emerging industry that has had to build practically everything from the bottom up. Today’s summary highlights the world’s cultivated meat approvals and the latest submissions from companies eager to offer consumers new cultivated products. Singapore Cultivated chicken Singapore pioneered the approval of cultivated meat with GOOD Meat‘s chicken in 2020. Since then, the product, a mix of 70% meat made from chicken cells and plant ingredients, has been cooked by chefs and served in fine …

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Cell scaffolding at NUS

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Cultivated, Cell-Cultured & Biotechnology

A Deep Dive into the Role of 3D Scaffolds as the Building Blocks for Cultivated Meat

In addition to scaling and cost hurdles, cultivated meat production faces the unique challenge of developing final products that meet the consumer’s expectations of conventional animal-based meat, including larger pieces akin to whole cuts. However, most prototypes are made from ground meat and do not look exactly like whole cuts. Why is this the case? 3D scaffolds Companies in the space are experimenting with 3D structures or scaffolds to recreate the structure and taste of animal tissue to make complex products such as steaks, filets, and even burgers. In animals, the extracellular matrix (ECM), a structure made of proteins and carbohydrates, supports the cells and guides them in their growth journey: differentiation and tissue development to make the different organs and body parts. Scaffolds for …

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School cafeteria meal

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Politics & Law

US Senators Propose Ban on Cell-Cultivated Meat in School Meals

US Senators Mike Rounds and Jon Tester have introduced the “School Lunch Integrity Act of 2024.” This bill seeks to amend nutritional requirements established by the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to ban cell-cultivated meat from the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP).  Since the first cell-cultivated protein product debuted in 2013, the industry has seen rapid growth and investment, with companies like Upside Foods and GOOD Meat emerging as key players in the United States, culminating in FDA and USDA approval last year. The development of these so-called “fake meat” products is aimed at supporting future food security by reducing livestock dependency. However, this growth has sparked controversy, particularly among …

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The Florida state flag waving along with the national flag of the United States of America. In the background there is a clear sky.

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Politics & Law

Florida House Republican Introduces Bill to Ban Cultivated Meat in the State

Florida House Representative Tyler Sirois is making headlines after introducing a new bill prohibiting the production, selling, holding, and distributing of cultivated meat in Florida. The news comes only a few weeks after TIME magazine’s Best Inventions of 2023 included GOOD Meat’s cultivated chicken. As reported by Action News Jax, the proposed legislation states that anyone found in violation could face criminal penalties, including a misdemeanor of the second degree, accompanied by a fine ranging from $500 to $1,000. Restaurants or food service companies violating the law would see a license suspension or an immediate stop-sale order. If signed into law, this bill would come into effect in July 2024 and could have significant implications for the emerging cellular agriculture industry.  Florida legislation reportedly mandates that any …

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Company News

UPSIDE Foods Announces its First Commerical Cultivated Meat Plant in Illinois

UPSIDE Foods, has officially chosen Glenview, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, as the location for its first large-scale commercial production facility.  This 187,000-square-foot plant, named “Rubicon,” will serve as a hub for the production of cultivated chicken products, marking UPSIDE’s first commercial-scale production. Moreover, the company has ambitious plans to diversify its product offerings by expanding into other meat varieties and whole-textured formats in the future. The company states it selected the name Rubicon with an appreciation for its historical significance as a point of no return, reflecting its commitment to redefine the future of food. Several factors drove the decision to establish its facility in this area. Firstly, Glenview’s strategic location offers significant logistical advantages, with major transportation crossroads facilitating efficient production, distribution, and …

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UPSIDE Foods

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Interviews

UPSIDE Foods: “We’ve Proven Cultivated Meat is Safe, Delicious, and Something Consumers Want”

Last November, UPSIDE Foods made history when it became one of the first two cultivated meat companies to have a product greenlit by the FDA. Since then, the company has reached several more milestones, with its cultivated chicken receiving USDA label approval this June and gaining final regulatory approval to be sold in the US a week later. UPSIDE’s first sale — believed to be the first ever for cultivated meat in the US — took place on July 1 at Chef Dominique Crenn’s acclaimed Bar Crenn restaurant. The initial event was for winners of a social media contest, but the cultivated chicken is now available to the public as part of a six-course meal at the restaurant. Most recently, UPSIDE announced that it had …

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UPSIDE Foods

Amy Chen © UPSIDE Foods
Cultivated Meat

UPSIDE Foods: “We’ve Proven Cultivated Meat is Safe, Delicious, and Something Consumers Want”

Last November, UPSIDE Foods made history when it became one of the first two cultivated meat companies to have a product greenlit by the FDA. Since then, the company has reached several more milestones, with its cultivated chicken receiving USDA label approval this June and gaining final regulatory approval to be sold in the US a week later. UPSIDE’s first sale — believed to be the first ever for cultivated meat in the US — took place on July 1 at Chef Dominique Crenn’s acclaimed Bar Crenn restaurant. The initial event was for winners of a social media contest, but the cultivated chicken is now available to the public as part of a six-course meal at the restaurant. Most recently, UPSIDE announced that it had …

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upside foods chicken on plate

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People

UPSIDE Foods Bolsters Executive Team, Hires Former Twitter Executive as Chief Legal Officer

UPSIDE Foods (previously known as Memphis Meats), one of the two cultivated meat producers granted permission to sell their novel cell-cultivated chicken to consumers in the USA, today announces that Dr. Kevin Kayser, UPSIDE’s Senior Vice President of Research & Development (R&D), has been promoted to Chief Scientific Officer, and Sean Edgett, former General Counsel at Twitter, is appointed as Chief Legal Officer. Dr. Kayser previously led UPSIDE’s R&D efforts for almost five years. In the new role, he will be responsible for driving UPSIDE’s scientific strategy, overseeing all R&D efforts, and collaborating with academic and industry partners to advance the mission and economics of cultivated meat. His notable achievements include developing high-performance cell lines and cell feeds, including advancements in serum-free cell feed formulations, …

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Guest trying cultivated chicken at Bar Crenn

Guest trying cultivated chicken at Bar Crenn ©UPSIDE Foods
Cultivated Meat

UPSIDE Foods: Reservations Now Open to Purchase Cultivated Meat in US For First Time

UPSIDE Foods announces the first reservations to try its historic cultivated chicken are now open to the public. On August 4, Bar Crenn in San Francisco will begin serving UPSIDE’s cultivated chicken as part of a six-course meal, marking the first time members of the public can sign up to purchase cultivated meat in the US.  The announcement comes just weeks after UPSIDE completed the first consumer sale of its cultivated chicken, also at Bar Crenn, to several winners selected from a social media contest. UPSIDE’s first official public seating will take place on August 4 at 5:00 pm PT, when Chef Dominique Crenn will serve the startup’s cultivated chicken as part of a six-course meal priced at $150.  During the dinner service, the chicken …

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Guest trying cultivated chicken at Bar Crenn

Guest trying cultivated chicken at Bar Crenn ©UPSIDE Foods
Cultivated Meat

UPSIDE Foods: Reservations Now Open to Purchase Cultivated Meat in US For First Time

UPSIDE Foods announces the first reservations to try its historic cultivated chicken are now open to the public. On August 4, Bar Crenn in San Francisco will begin serving UPSIDE’s cultivated chicken as part of a six-course meal, marking the first time members of the public can sign up to purchase cultivated meat in the US.  The announcement comes just weeks after UPSIDE completed the first consumer sale of its cultivated chicken, also at Bar Crenn, to several winners selected from a social media contest. UPSIDE’s first official public seating will take place on August 4 at 5:00 pm PT, when Chef Dominique Crenn will serve the startup’s cultivated chicken as part of a six-course meal priced at $150.  During the dinner service, the chicken …

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Crenn Cultivated Chicken Dish at Bar Crenn

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Cultivated Meat

UPSIDE Foods: First-Ever Sale of Cultivated Meat in US Takes Place Today

UPSIDE Foods announces its whole-cut, cell-cultivated chicken is launching at Chef Dominique Crenn’s acclaimed Bar Crenn restaurant on July 1st – in what UPSIDE believes is the first-ever consumer sale of cultivated meat in the US. The first customers will be several winners selected from a social media contest held by UPSIDE. The event follows a historic month for UPSIDE, which recently gained regulatory approval from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to sell its cell-cultivated chicken to chefs, restaurants, and consumers. UPSIDE’s chicken is also the first meat product Chef Crenn will offer on her menu since 2018 – when the Crenn Dining Group stopped serving conventional meat out of concern for its environmental impact.  The July 1st event will feature UPSIDE’s cultivated chicken fried …

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UPSIDE Foods receives regulatory approval to produce and sell its cultivated chicken in the US

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Company News

UPSIDE Foods Gains Final Approval to Sell Cultivated Chicken to US Consumers

UPSIDE Foods announces it has secured the regulatory approval to produce and sell its cultivated chicken in the US. Concurrently, Eat Just’s GOOD Meat division has also passed its final stage of approval today (another article to follow shortly) after both companies today received the Grant of Inspection (GOI) from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) marking the last step in the pre-market regulatory process. Receiving the GOI confirms that UPSIDE Foods’ Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC) meets federal operating requirements for meat & poultry facilities. Market debut UPSIDE announced that its market debut will be a whole-textured chicken product, 99% chicken cells, served at Bar Crenn in San Francisco, a restaurant owned by the three Michelin-star chef Dominique Crenn (a woman will prepare the …

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Cultivated meat made with serum-free cell growth media

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Company News

Setting the Record Straight: Eat Just is First Cultivated Meat Company to Receive USDA Label Approval

In a turn of events, and further to our article published some hours ago, UPSIDE Foods is in fact the second cultivated meat company in the US to receive label approval from USDA, not the first, as the company claimed in its widely distributed press release today. Following the publication of the UPSIDE news on ours and other platforms, Eat Just contacts vegconomist to set the record straight: “GOOD Meat (Eat Just’s cultivated arm) received approval of our label on June 8,” says the California food tech, adding that the company was not planning to make an announcement until after it had received its Grant of Inspection, representing the final step in the regulatory approval process. What came first, the chicken or the … chicken? …

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UPSIDE Foods receives USDA label approval for its cultivated chicken

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Company News

UPDATED: UPSIDE Foods Receives First-Ever USDA Label Approval for Cultivated Meat

Update: We have been contacted by Eat Just which states its cultivated meat subsidiary GOOD Meat was in fact the first to receive USDA label approval, on June 8th (UPSIDE received approval June 12th) though was not intending to publicise the move until its GoI. We will report further on the situation. UPSIDE Foods announces it has become the first company in the world to receive USDA label approval for cultivated meat, specifically for its cultivated chicken The USDA, which regulates label approvals for meat, poultry, and egg products, officially approved the term “cell-cultivated chicken” for Upside Foods’ novel product on Monday, the 12th of June. UPSIDE Foods’ chicken, a cultivated meat product grown directly from animal cells, is subject to the exact labeling requirements …

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cultivated ground meat hot dog

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Company News

UPSIDE Foods Unveils Next Gen Cultivated Meat Products & Scientific Breakthrough

UPSIDE Foods announces a new consumer product line, including chicken sausages, chicken sandwiches, and dumplings made with cultivated ground meat, herbs, and plant-based proteins. Pending regulatory approval, this next generation of products marks an expansion of UPSIDE’s commercial portfolio, offering consumers a range of cultivated meat options. This new range follows the company’s signature cultivated chicken filet that made history last year when it received a landmark FDA green light, accepting UPSIDE’s safety conclusion.  The regulatory process for UPSIDE‘s new products will be a separate request from the cultivated chicken filet, which is currently undergoing review by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for remaining approvals, explains UPSIDE. Major scientific achievement Since introducing the world’s first cultivated beef meatball in 2016, UPSIDE has achieved various milestones in improving its …

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Nair Flores

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Company News

The EVERY Co. Appoints Nair Flores, Formerly of Facebook and UPSIDE Foods, to Lead Its IP Strategy

Food tech company The EVERY Co. announces it has appointed legal veteran Nair Flores as the company’s Senior Vice President, Head of Legal. Flores previously served in “seminal” roles at hypergrowth companies like Facebook, Lyft and Upside Foods. In her new role, Flores will lead EVERY’s IP estate as the company scales global production of its alternative proteins.  According to EVERY, the hiring of Flores comes as the company positions itself for key growth milestones for its nature-identical egg products. Flores will be tasked with leading the company’s legal strategy and laying the IP groundwork for EVERY’s expansion.  Flores brings 20 years of experience, most previously as Vice President, Legal at cultivated meat company Upside Foods, where she was instrumental in developing IP infrastructure and …

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a collage of farm animals

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Cultivated, Cell-Cultured & Biotechnology

The Companies Removing Fetal Bovine Serum to Make Ethical, Slaughter-Free Meat

Last week, GOOD Meat received the first-in-the-world regulatory approval to use fetal bovine serum-free media in its cultivated poultry production process. With this significant milestone in the history of cultivated meat, we discuss the companies paving the way for ethical, slaughter-free meat. Removing fetal bovine serum (FBS) from cultivated meat production has been among the industry’s major challenges. FBS has been the default growth supplement for in vitro cell culture used by academic and industrial researchers and scientists, including in the cellular agriculture space. Ethically problematic Fetal bovine serum is made by harvesting the blood of bovine fetuses taken from pregnant cows during slaughter. Blood from the fetus is drawn out via a closed collection system and then transformed into a serum. FBS contains growth factors, hormones, …

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upside foods ceo uma valeti

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Cultivated, Cell-Cultured & Biotechnology

UPSIDE Foods Discusses Next Steps Following FDA Green Light

UPSIDE Foods, a food tech company that recently received GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) status for its cultivated chicken, has been in the spotlight following the achievement, one which will cause a ripple effect throughout the cultivated meat industry across the planet in terms of regulatory approvals. In an interview with Yahoo! Finance, CEO Uma Valeti discussed the key points around this significant milestone. Price parity Valeti emphasized the importance of achieving price parity with conventional meat products. Currently, the small-scale production and challenges in product market allocation for retail result in a premium price for cultivated meat. Valeti predicts that the industry can reach price parity in 5-15 years. UPSIDE chicken is real chicken Valeti also clarified that UPSIDE’s cultivated chicken is not a …

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