Is lab-grown meat real meat, and is it safe?

The objection

“That’s not real meat, it’s a science experiment. And nobody can tell me it’s actually safe to eat.”

The answer

Lab-grown meat, also called cultivated or cell-cultivated meat, is animal tissue grown from cells that were taken from an animal and multiplied outside it [1]. The US Congressional Research Service (2023) describes such products as made “uniquely from animal cells” and unlike plant-based meat [2]. Regulators have made the label say how it was made: Australia and New Zealand require “cell-cultured” or “cell-cultivated” (2025) [3], Singapore requires a qualifying term such as “cultured” on packaged products [4], and in the US the Department of Agriculture approved “cell-cultivated chicken” as the label for the first two firms’ products in 2023 [2]. How closely it matches farmed meat is still unclear: the case study of Qatar in a 2023 report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) says cell-based meat has no exact counterpart in traditional meat, and that it is not yet known how far the protein in cultured cells resembles meat’s [1].

How is lab-grown meat made?

Lab-grown meat is made by taking cells from an animal, multiplying them in a bioreactor of nutrient broth, then harvesting and processing them into food, the four stages set out by the FAO and WHO in 2023 [1]. The first cells come from a biopsy of a live animal, from tissue cut from a slaughtered one, or from embryonic stem cells, and are stored frozen in cell banks, from which a vial starts each production run [1]. Ordinary cells manage only a limited number of divisions, so some firms use immortalised lines that keep dividing, made either by genetic modification or by culturing cells over and over until some arise that divide indefinitely of their own accord [1]. The broth contains glucose, amino acids, salts, vitamins and water, and mammalian cells have traditionally needed foetal bovine serum as well [1]. The FAO and WHO report that companies increasingly look for serum-free media, for cost, consistency and contamination reasons and to stop relying on animal products, replacing the serum with insulin, transferrin and growth factors [1]. Muscle and fat cells can be combined to copy the texture of meat, or blended with plant ingredients [1], and some approved products are blends: Singapore allowed Eat Just’s cultivated chicken as an ingredient in its nuggets [5], and Vow’s quail cells were approved in Australia and New Zealand for use with other ingredients in products such as logs, rolls and patties [3].

Is lab-grown meat safe to eat?

The food regulators that have examined lab-grown meat in Singapore, the United States, Israel, and Australia and New Zealand have allowed products on sale after reviewing each one and how it was made, but lab-grown meat has been sold only since December 2020, too recently for any long-term data on people eating it. The Singapore Food Agency, which has allowed Eat Just’s chicken on sale since then, checks three things: the inputs, including cell lines, culture media and reagents, for toxicity and for microbes that could make people ill; the production process and its controls; and the final product, which it compares with similar foods long eaten safely and tests for unexpected allergenic proteins [5]. Its review of Eat Just’s own safety assessments found no food safety concerns [4]. By October 2025 its approvals included Vow’s cultivated meat as well [6], and in August 2026 the trade publication FoodNavigator reported that it had cleared Aleph Farms’ beef, a blend of cultivated beef cells and plant protein [11].

In the United States the Food and Drug Administration oversees the cells up to harvest and then hands over to the Department of Agriculture, which inspects production and approves the label, while most seafood stays with the FDA [7]. The FDA finished its reviews of cultivated chicken from UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat in November 2022 and March 2023, and in June 2023 the USDA granted both firms inspection [2][7]. The FDA calls its review a voluntary consultation, which ends with the agency saying it has no further questions about the firm’s conclusion that the food is “as safe as comparable foods produced by other methods” [7][8]. It has since completed consultations on cultivated pork fat, in March 2025, salmon, in May 2025, and a third chicken product, in July 2025 [8][9].

Israel’s health ministry approved Aleph Farms’ cultivated beef for sale to the public in January 2024 [10]. In June 2025 the food standards code shared by Australia and New Zealand was changed to permit Vow’s cultured quail, after the two countries’ joint regulator found that it “presents no toxicological, nutritional or allergenic concerns” [3].

The FAO and WHO’s 2023 expert consultation found that many of the hazards in making cell-based food are already well known and exist equally in conventionally produced food [1]. The experts said attention may need to go to what is specific to cell culture, such as the new substances that feed the cells and possible allergic reactions to them, while noting that existing preventative measures and controls are available for these hazards [1]. The insulin, transferrin and growth factors in serum-free media have never been added to food before, so there are no established health-based guidance values for them, and the threshold of toxicological concern approach would not suit these proteins either, because their structures may be poorly represented in the databases its threshold values were derived from [1]. The report calls for more research into whether, and how far, cell-based foods differ from conventionally produced ones [1].

Is lab-grown meat vegan?

Lab-grown meat is not vegan, because it is animal tissue grown from cells first taken from an animal, and the Congressional Research Service (2023) says it “would not be considered a vegan or vegetarian option” [2]. Foetal bovine serum adds a further animal input wherever it is used, and the FAO and WHO note that supplements from animals, such as foetal calf serum, “might not align” with the aim of producing meat without slaughter [1]. Serum-free media remove that input but leave the cell line, which still traces back to a biopsy, a slaughtered animal or an embryo [1].