Is it chicken? Here's how the first bite of 'cell-cultivated' meat tastes
AP health reporter JoNel Aleccia taste-tested “cell-cultivated” meat made by two California firms tjat were the first to get U.S. Department of Agriculture approval to sell the novel product
When I told friends and family I was reporting on the first chicken meat grown from animal cells, their first comment was “Eww." Their second comment was: “How does it taste?"
The short answer (you've probably heard this sentence before in other contexts): Tastes like chicken.
The longer answer, which folds in the “Eww” response, is more nuanced. Yes, it's strange to think of eating a totally new kind of meat — chicken that doesn't come from a chicken, meat that will be sold as “cell-cultivated” chicken after the U.S. Agriculture Department on Wednesday gave the green light to two California firms, Upside Foods and Good Meat.
But it's also interesting (and exciting!) to taste test the first offerings of a new era in meat production, which aims to eliminate harm to billions of animals slaughtered for food — and to dramatically reduce the environmental effects of grazing, growing feed for those animals and dealing with their animal waste.
