07/17/2026
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Lab-grown meat has cleared US regulators, and one of the biggest names in traditional meat is helping fund the companies making it. Also called cultivated or cell-cultured meat, it's grown by taking a small sample of cells from a live animal and multiplying them inside steel bioreactors until they form real muscle tissue. Despite the "lab-grown" label, it isn't an imitation like a plant-based patty; it's biologically animal meat, just produced without slaughter.
Worth clarifying the timeline, since it's often framed as breaking news. The FDA issued its first "no questions" safety clearance in late 2022, and in June 2023 the USDA gave Upside Foods and Good Meat full approval to sell cultivated chicken, making the US the second country after Singapore to allow it. Since then, more firms have followed, including Wildtype's cultured salmon and Mission Barns' cultivated pork fat.
The industry backer drawing attention is Tyson Foods, which produces roughly 20 percent of America's beef, pork, and chicken. Through its venture arm, Tyson Ventures, it was an early investor in Upside Foods and other cultivated-meat startups, signaling that legacy meat giants are hedging toward a future of multiple protein types. One correction to a common claim: KFC and Taco Bell are owned by Yum! Brands, not Tyson. Tyson is a major supplier to those chains, but doesn't own them, and no cultivated meat is on their menus. For now, cultivated meat remains scarce, expensive, and available only in limited restaurant settings, not on grocery shelves.
Sources: ABC News, Congress.gov, UPSIDE Foods.
