UPSIDE Foods, a cultivated meat, poultry and seafood company, announced a new range of consumer products made from real animal cells. Pending regulatory review, these cultivated ground meat products will broaden UPSIDE's commercial portfolio to include a range of options, such as chicken sausages, chicken sandwiches and dumplings. In addition, UPSIDE announced that it has developed a breakthrough chicken cell line for use in suspension cell culture that could substantially reduce the cost of production for these ground meat products.
UPSIDE Foods has been committed to developing a diverse range of products since its founding in 2015, with the ultimate goal of providing consumers with the meat they love in a new and better way. This includes the development of both whole-textured products, such as chicken filets, and ground meat products with simpler textures that can be scaled up quickly and at a lower cost. The company will initially be launching at a small scale with its cultivated chicken filet, followed by this next generation of products.
UPSIDE has also achieved critical breakthroughs in its ground meat product portfolio, including developing a chicken cell line that does not require platelet-derived growth factors (PDGF), one of the most expensive ingredients used to support cell growth. Since introducing a cultivated beef meatball in 2016, the company has been committed to refining its production methods for its ground products. In December 2021, UPSIDE announced the development of an animal component–free cell feed for some of its products, further demonstrating its dedication to producing meat in a way that's sustainable and humane.
UPSIDE's ground meat products will be made up of real animal cells, along with other ingredients like herbs, vegetables, spices, and plant-based proteins. The regulatory process for UPSIDE's ground products, which are based on cells grown in a suspension culture, will be separate from that of its first product, an adherent tissue-based process for which the company received a landmark first in the world "green light" from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year. That product is currently undergoing review by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for remaining approvals. Meanwhile, UPSIDE will continue working with both FDA and USDA to bring its next generation of products to market.
