According to NPR, Uma Valeti, cardiologist and co-founder of Upside Foods, got the idea to develop these type of meat products when he was working with patients that suffered heart attacks.
This was some 15 years ago, when he had to grow human heart cells in the lab to cure these patients.
By extracting animal cells via needle biopsy and placing them in special compartments, scientists can feed them the necessary feedstock and they will eventually turn into meat.
After years of experimenting with this process, the company is now awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to put its products on shelves.
Should the products be approved, Upside Meats can begin producing over 22 tons of lab-grown meat, including chicken fillet.
Sci-Fi Foods is another company that aims to make the meat sector more sustainable and planet-friendly, as the team behind the project combines lab-grown meat with plant-based alternatives to produce their hybrid burger.
Plant-based alternatives have health benefits, too
Bruce Friedrich of the Good Food Institute, says that "price and taste are why people make their food decisions".
This way, he points to the fact that meat alternative products must be priced in a competitive way compared to their traditional counterpart, while the taste also has to be as close as possible.
It remains to be seen whether or not cultivated meat can be as healthy and nutritious as regular meat or if it can surpass it in that sense and there are experts who believe that vegetarians and vegans might not convert to this product, for obvious reasons.
Still, lab-grown meat has the advantage that it can be modified to include the necessary vitamins and proteins that regular meat contains.
Dana Hunnes, a registered dietitian at UCLA Medical Center, said that "it is possible to create a so-called healthier version of the meat."
Also, "from a food safety standpoint, it probably has a one up", she added.
As he's waiting for approval from the FDA, Valeti mentioned that his company signed a partnership with Dominique Crenn, co-owner and chef at the three-Michelin-starred restaurant Atelier Crenn in San Francisco.
The expert will bring her knowledge to develop new recipes involving Upside Meat's cell-based meat alternatives.
Any thoughts?