A Side of Heavy Metals and Rodent DNA Found in Lab-Grown Fake ‘Chicken’
A Side of Heavy Metals and Rodent DNA Found in Lab-Grown Fake ‘Chicken’
This article was originally published by The Defender—Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website on January 10, 2024.
By: Tierra Shehzel, APDTA
Fears regarding food safety are swirling in the burgeoning arena of fake meat, fueled by recent struggles plaguing industry leader Upside Foods. The company’s inability to sufficiently scale up production, coupled with alarming incidents of contamination like rodent DNA in chicken cell lines and excessive lead levels, paint a worrying picture for the entire sector.
Upside Foods, a leading company in the fake meat market and one of two allowed to sell cultured meat in the U.S., is facing challenges in scaling up its production. Contamination issues, including the presence of rodent DNA in one of its chicken cell lines, have hindered the company’s progress. Despite promoting its expensive bioreactors, Upside is only able to produce small amounts of fake meat bits in single-use plastic bottles.
Additionally, lab-grown meat often contains other animal components and when Upside tested its product for heavy metals, some samples contained high levels of lead. The hopes of Silicon Valley and investors like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos for cultured meat to become a sustainable and popular alternative to traditional meat are not materializing as expected.
Silicon Valley’s foray into food production through precision fermentation has raised concerns about the creation of synthetic food products in a lab. While regenerative farmers focus on producing natural, wholesome food, venture-backed startups in Silicon Valley use genetically engineered microbes to create food in a process removed from nature. Upside, a company backed by prominent figures like Richard Branson and Kimbal Musk, has faced criticism for using stainless steel bioreactors that have reportedly encountered contamination issues, with rodent DNA once found in a chicken cell line.
The fake meat industry claims to be sustainable, but there is a contradiction when it comes to lab-grown chicken. The chicken is actually being grown in two-liter plastic bottles, with hundreds needed to produce a few fillets. This contradicts the idea of sustainability. Upside, has a limited amount available at Bar Crenn in San Francisco. However, this “sustainable” solution has been criticized because a single night at Bar Crenn could require the use of over a hundred plastic bottles. Additionally, the fake chicken bits produced by Upside are not made from muscle cells. Fake meat companies struggle to grow and immortalize myoblasts, the cells that grow into muscle meat. Instead, they often use fibroblasts, which are easier to grow but not as appetizing.
This has raised doubts about the company’s claims of producing meat without killing animals. Additionally, the growth medium for lab-grown meat often includes fetal bovine serum, contradicted by the narrative of animal-free production. The use of animal components and the development of synthetic “blood” and nutrients make the process expensive, with cost estimates exceeding $20,000 per kilogram. Lab-grown meat has also faced concerns over nutrient composition. Furthermore, studies have shown that lab-grown meat has a comparable carbon footprint to conventional meat and may even have a higher environmental impact.
