‘Completely misguided’: How the cultivated meat industry is responding to legislative backlash

The cultivated meat industry made great progress in 2023, with July marking its official regulatory greenlight when the USDA and FDA gave Upside Foods and Eat Just permission to sell in the U.S.

Since then, though, the space has yet to make significant gains as capital funding has been drying up and the cost of production remains high.

Since the approval, both companies began selling their product at exclusive restaurants in the U.S. — Upside Foods at Bar Crenn in San Francisco and Eat Just at China Chilcano, a Jose Andres restaurant in the nation’s capital. As of this week, though, neither restaurants serve the product.

Since the industry’s first introduction to the market, consumer education has been high on the list when it comes to priorities, and recent backlash from both legislators and organizations may show that companies have a lot of educating still to do.