‘EPIC’ Ultra Advanced Lab-Grown Meat Facility In California To Welcome Visitors
Image via Upside Foods
Upside Foods, a lab-grown meat company based in Berkley, California, has claimed its 53,000-sq ft facility is the world’s most advanced yet. It certainly holds a spunky name: “EPIC,” an acronym for Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center.
According to Interesting Engineering, the facility is powered by renewable energy, and is expected to produce up to 50,000 lbs of commercial lab-grown meat. In order to create the cultured meat, researchers harvest live cells from animals in bioreactors, and add a whole slew of nutrients to allow them to grow into larger portions.
“We’re committed to completely detaching our production process from animal slaughter. Our aim is to bring animal component-free products to market as soon as we can,” the company said.
“We feed the cell a range of nutrients (amino acids, sugars, trace minerals, and vitamins) normally found in food and compositionally similar to what develops organically in animal body, just in a different format.”
Image via Upside Foods
The brand said it obtained the cells through “a variety of methods,” which include “biopsies from living animals, eggs, fishing, and recently slaughtered animals who were already part of the food system.”
Interestingly, Upside Foods is planning on being as transparent as possible about its business. As the firm awaits approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it’s scheduled to open its doors in January 2022. Visitors will be allowed to step right into the facility for tours and product testing.
“When we bring products like this to the world, we expect people to ask a lot of questions,” Uma Valeti, CEO of Upside Foods, told Fast Company.
“And the best way to answer them is to start talking about it well before a product gets on the market, demystifying it.”
[via Interesting Engineering and Fast Company, images via Upside Foods]
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