‘Lab-grown’ meat maker hosts Miami tasting party as Florida ban goes into effect

MIAMI — Like Florida’s ban on ‘lab-grown’ meat would go into effect next week, one manufacturer threw one last party — at least for now — with a cultured meat tasting party in Miami.

California-based Upside Foods hosted dozens of guests Thursday evening at a rooftop reception in the city’s Wynwood neighborhood, known for its street art, breweries, nightclubs and trendy restaurants.

“This is delicious meat,” says Uma Valeti, CEO and founder of Upside Foods. “And we fundamentally believe that people should have the choice to choose what they put on their plate.”

The US approved it the sale of what is now being called “cell-cultured” or “cell-grown” meat for the first time in June 2023, allowing Upside Foods and another California company, Good Meat, to sell cultured chicken.

Earlier this year, Florida and Alabama forbidden the sale of farmed meat and seafood, which grown from animal cellsOther states and federal lawmakers also want to restrict it, arguing that the product could harm farmers and pose a safety risk to the public.

As Florida ranchers joined in Governor Ron DeSantis When he signed the ban in May, Valeti said Florida officials never contacted his company before the legislation passed.

“It’s pretty clear to us that the governor and the administration have been misinformed,” Valeti said. “And all we’re asking for is an opportunity to have a direct conversation and say, ‘This is proven science, this is proven safety.’”

Cultured products are grown in steel tanks using cells from a living animal, a fertilized egg, or a storage bank. The cells are fed with special mixtures of water, sugar, fats, and vitamins. Once grown, they are formed into cutlets, nuggets, and other shapes.

Chef Mika Leon, owner of Caja Caliente in Coral Gables, prepared the cultured chicken for Thursday’s event, which invited members of the South Florida public to get their first and possibly last taste of cultured meat before it ban in Florida takes effect Monday. Leon served chicken tostadas with avocado, chipotle crema and beet sprouts.

“When you cook it, it sizzles and cooks just like chicken, which was crazy,” Leon said. “And then when you go to eat it, it’s juicy.”

Receptionist Alexa Arteaga said she could imagine cultured meat being a more ethical alternative.

“The texture itself is a little bit different, but the flavor was really, really good,” Arteaga said. “Much better than I expected.”

Another guest, Skyler Myers, agreed that the texture is different when you eat just a piece of meat, but said it just looked like regular chicken when he ate the tostada.

“There’s no difference,” Myers said. “I mean, you never know.”

In addition to the ethical issues surrounding the killing of animals, Valeti said that cultured meat avoids many of the health and environmental problems caused by the meat industry, such as deforestation, pollution and the spread of disease. He also noted that the meat his company produces does not come from a lab, but rather from a facility that looks more like a brewery or a dairy processing plant.

“We don’t have any caged animals,” Valeti said. “We only have healthy animal cells growing in cultivators.”

The restrictions come even as cultured meat and seafood remain too expensive to meaningfully enter the market. Two top U.S. restaurants briefly added the products to their menus, but they are not yet available in U.S. supermarkets. Companies have worked to reduce costs by scaling up production, but now they are also trying to respond to bans with petitions and possible legal action.

Sean Edgett, Upside Foods’ chief legal officer, said the company went through a years-long process with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration before receiving approval. He said these federal regulations should replace all state bans, which he believes are unconstitutional.

“We hope that if legislators can’t change their minds and move things back in the direction of progress, the courts will step in and make that clear,” Edgett said.

Supporters of the ban say they want to protect farmers and consumers from a product that has only been around for about a decade.

Sen. Jay Collins, a Republican who sponsored the Florida bill, noted that the legislation does not ban research, only the production and sale of cultured meat. Collins said safety was his primary motivation, but he also wants to protect Florida agriculture.

“Let’s not be hasty in replacing anything,” Collins said earlier this year. “It’s a multi-billion dollar industry. We feed a lot of people across the country with our cattle, beef, pork, poultry and seafood industries.

Valeti is not trying to replace any industry, just give people more options, he said.

“We want to have multiple choices that feed us,” Valeti said. “Some of those choices are conventional agriculture. Some of those choices are plant-based foods. And cultured meat is a good choice too.”