Lab-Grown Chicken May Be Coming to a Store Near You—Here’s What You Need to Know

Americans certainly have a thing for chicken, chowing more chicken than pork and beef. In 2022, the average American ate about 98.9 pounds of broiler chicken.

That amounts to more than 8 billion chickens being killed every year. Yet that could soon change. In November 2022, the Food and Drug Administration made a historic ruling, for the first time giving a company, Upside Foods, the green light to produce lab-grown poultry. Just four months later, it did the same for Good Meat, which has been selling its lab-grown chicken in Singapore. 

Safe is one thing, but healthy is another, which may be why you’re wondering if you should put lab-grown chicken on your plate. Simply put, yes.

What Is Lab-Grown Meat? 

Whether you call it lab-grown, cultivated or cultured meat, the terms mean the same, namely that the tissue or meat product was grown in a lab. “When we grow cells in the lab, we refer to the process as ‘cell culture’ where we cultivate or expand the cells to increase the amount we have,” says Rosalyn Abbott, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon’s College of Engineering in Pittsburgh, who’s co-leading a project to produce meat without sacrificing an animal. 

Here’s how it works. Lab-grown chicken starts with cells extracted from an egg or live animals. Scientists then evaluate and test those cells, selecting ones that will produce meat that most resembles chicken and can create even more cells. “This meat is constructed to have the same composition, architecture, texture and flavor of traditional meat products,” Abbott says. The cells are then put into stainless-steel vats reminiscent of those found in breweries. For the next several weeks, the cells feed on nutrients and grow until they’re ready to be harvested and shaped into what appears on your plate.

Is It Safe to Eat?

In its approval for Upside, the FDA wrote that “[w]e evaluated the information UPSIDE Foods submitted to the agency and have no further questions at this time about the firm’s safety conclusions.” In other words, lab-grown chicken is safe to eat. 

Yet from a chronic disease and health perspective, the verdict isn’t so clear. “Like any other meat, it may come with the same potential hazards since it is still animal protein,” says Dana Ellis Hunnes, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., senior clinical dietitian at the UCLA Medical Center, assistant professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and author of Recipe for Survival. Those hazards include increasing inflammatory markers and being associated with an increase in cancer risk and/or tumor growth.

Lab-Grown Chicken vs. Farmed Chicken

Because it’s made from the cells of chickens, the lab-grown version should have a similar texture and taste to farmed chicken. That means you can use it in dishes just as you would farmed chicken, Hunnes says.

But what about the protein content? Lab-grown chicken may have more protein than traditionally grown chicken. “Because it’s produced in a lab, scientists can control what’s being grown, including how much fat versus meat there is,” she says. That’s not the case with farmed animals, whose living conditions (which Hunnes describes as abhorrent and stressful), lack of exercise and inability to engage in natural behaviors affect the chickens’ health and, thus, their meat.  

Might this mean then that lab-grown chicken is healthier than farmed chicken? Not necessarily. “Animal proteins still contain certain levels of amino acids, some of which may be more inflammatory than others (those found in higher levels in plant foods), and those amino acids could potentially be detrimental,” Hunnes says.  

The Pros of Lab-Grown Meat

Experts see numerous benefits with lab-grown chicken. Here are four. 

1. Cleaner growing environment: With lab-grown chicken, the environment can be controlled so that it’s clean and sterile, something that can’t be said about the way farmed chickens are raised. In fact, experts are worried about the overuse of antibiotics causing antibacterial resistance, but lab-grown chicken eliminates that, as well as foodborne illnesses and other diseases like avian flu that animals might transmit to humans. “The chance for bacterial contamination should be next to nothing,” Hunnes says. 
2. Less impact on the environment: The toll that farmed chicken is taking on the environment is massive. “The majority of livestock are reared in concentrated animal feeding operations causing environmental, public health and food security concerns, including zoonoses and dramatic weather events leading to livestock shortages,” Abbott says. “Cultivated meat will reduce agricultural land use, water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency.” Upside Foods cites a study that suggests that cultivated meat may use 90% less land and emit up to 90% fewer greenhouse gases than animal-based meat.
3. Quicker production times: Instead of waiting years for farmed chickens to grow, cultivated meat can be cultured in a matter of weeks, Abbott says. With Good Meat, for instance, once the cells are put in a cultivator, meat can be harvested four to six weeks later.
4. Fewer animals being slaughtered: Lab-grown chicken doesn’t require any animals to be slaughtered, which means that the lives of billions of chickens could potentially be saved. Upside Foods, for instance, used a single fertilized chicken egg to grow the meat that’s currently being served at a California restaurant. The cells it obtained from that egg can be stored—and used to create more meat—for at least 10 years. Another bonus? “By constructing only the tissue that will be consumed, cultivated meat avoids the need to grow and sacrifice the rest of the animal,” Abbott says. 

The Cons

There are, though, a few downsides to lab-grown chicken, including the following two. 

1. Lack of availability: Scaling lab-grown chicken to the amount of meat that Americans eat will take a long time, Hunnes says. And of course, some states like Florida and Alabama have made this an even bigger hurdle, passing bans on cultivated meat before it’s even ready for market.
2. Price: Right now, cultivated meat products are more expensive than traditional products, so don’t be surprised if it costs more than farmed chicken once it does land in grocery stores. “As technology advances, though, the price will drop,” Abbott says.

So Should You Eat Lab-Grown Chicken?

Yes, especially given all of the positives behind it. And while it may seem strange to think of meat being grown in a lab, “it’s the same thing as eating meat that was grown traditionally in a chicken,” Abbott says. Chicken is such a staple in the American diet that one day it will probably even seem normal to eat lab-grown chicken versus traditionally grown chicken. 

The Bottom Line

Don’t be chicken to try lab-grown chicken if given the chance. Whether you want to spare the suffering of farmed chickens or lower your dietary impact on the climate, consuming lab-grown chicken will accomplish both goals, and that’s something to feel good about. As Abbott says, “Future generations will want to know where their meat is coming from and will feel empowered by choosing options that protect animals and our environment.”