MIAMI (AP) 鈥 As Florida's ban on "lab-grown鈥 meat is set to go into effect next week, one manufacturer hosted a last hurrah 鈥 at least for now 鈥 with a cultivated meat-tasting party in Miami.
California-based Upside Foods hosted dozens of guests Thursday evening at a rooftop reception in the city's Wynwood neighborhood, known for its street art, breweries, nightclubs and trendy restaurants.
鈥淭his is delicious meat,鈥 Upside Foods CEO and founder Uma Valeti said. 鈥淎nd we just fundamentally believe that people should have a choice to choose what they want to put on their plate.鈥
the sale of what's now being called 鈥渃ell-cultivated鈥 or 鈥渃ell-cultured鈥 meat for the first time in June 2023, allowing Upside Foods and another California company, Good Meat, to sell cultivated chicken.
Earlier this year, Florida and Alabama the sale of cultivated meat and seafood, which is . Other states and federal lawmakers also are looking to restrict it, arguing the product could hurt farmers and pose a safety risk to the public.
While Florida cattle ranchers joined when he signed the ban into law in May, Valeti said Florida officials never reached out to his company before passing the legislation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty clear to us that the governor and the government have been misinformed,鈥 Valeti said. 鈥淎nd all we鈥檙e asking for is a chance to have a direct conversation and say, 鈥榯his is proven science, this is proven safety.鈥欌
Cultivated products are grown in steel tanks using cells from a living animal, a fertilized egg or a storage bank. The cells are fed with special blends of water, sugar, fats and vitamins. Once they鈥檝e grown, they鈥檙e formed into cutlets, nuggets and other shapes.
Chef Mika Leon, owner of Caja Caliente in Coral Gables, prepared the cultivated chicken for Thursday's event, which invited members of the South Florida public to get their first, and possibly last, taste of cultivated meat before Florida's ban begins Monday. Leon served chicken tostadas with avocado, chipotle crema and beet sprouts.
"When you cook it, it sizzles and cooks just like chicken, which was insane," Leon said. 鈥淎nd then when you go to eat it, it鈥檚 juicy.鈥
Reception guest Alexa Arteaga said she could imagine cultivated meat being a more ethical alternative.
鈥淭he texture itself is a little bit different, but the taste was really, really good,鈥 Arteaga said. 鈥淟ike way better than I was expecting.鈥
Another guest, Skyler Myers, agreed about the texture being different when eating a piece of meat by itself but said it just seemed like normal chicken when he ate the tostada.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no difference,鈥 Myers said. 鈥淚 mean, there鈥檚 no way you would ever know.鈥
Besides the ethical issues surrounding the killing of animals, Valeti said cultivated meat avoids many of the health and environmental problems created by the meat industry, such as deforestation, pollution and the spread of disease. He also noted that the meat his company produces is not coming from a lab but from a facility more closely resembling a brewery or a dairy processing plant.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have any confined animals,鈥 Valeti said. 鈥淲e just have healthy animal cells that are growing in cultivators.鈥
The restrictions come despite cultivated meat and seafood still being too expensive to reach the market in a meaningful way. Two high-end U.S. restaurants briefly added the products to their menus, but it hasn't been available at any U.S. grocery stores. Companies have been working to bring down costs by scaling up production, but now they鈥檙e also trying to respond to bans with and possible legal action.
Sean Edgett, Upside Foods chief legal officer, said the company went through a yearslong process with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration before receiving approval. He said those federal regulations should supersede any state bans, which he believes are unconstitutional.
鈥淲e鈥檙e hopeful that if lawmakers can鈥檛 change their mind and turn things around back to an avenue of progress that the courts will step in and make that clear,鈥 Edgett said.
Backers of the bans say they want to protect farmers and consumers from a product that only has been around for about a decade.
State Sen. Jay Collins, a Republican who sponsored the Florida bill, noted the legislation doesn鈥檛 ban research, just the manufacturing and sale of cultivated meat. Collins said safety was his primary motivator, but he also wants to protect Florida agriculture.
鈥淟et鈥檚 not be in a rush to replace something,鈥 Collins said earlier this year. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a billion-dollar industry. We feed a ton of people across the country with our cattle, beef, pork, poultry and fish industries.鈥
Valeti isn't trying to replace any industry, just give people more options, he said.
鈥淲e want to have multiple choices that feed us,鈥 Valeti said. 鈥淪ome of those choices are conventional farming. Some of those choices are coming from plant-based foods. And cultivated meat is another solid choice."
