The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared lab-grown meat for human consumption. Although not technically an approval, the completion of the pre-market consultation means that Upside Foods, a California-based company, will be able to begin selling its products once the U.S. Department of Agriculture has inspected its facilities.

Amy Chen, the chief operating officer of Upside Foods, told The Dallas Express that the green light from the FDA on November 16 represents a major step forward for lab-grown meat, or “cultivated meat.”

With the go-ahead from the FDA, Chen claims Upside Foods has paved the way for the future sale of cultivated meat as a consumer product. Moreover, she believes cultivated meat has the potential to remove the environmental cost of the traditional meat industry.

“Demand for meat is skyrocketing beyond what our planet can sustain,” Chen explained. Chen hopes cultivated meat will allow consumers to “enjoy the meat they love without the environmental impact.”

Cultivated meat is created by extracting cells from an animal. The cells are then fed salts, minerals, and carbohydrates. Over time, the cells grow into tissues that fit the mold they are placed into. This allows Upside Foods to create “cuts” of meat.

Upside Foods is currently developing cultivated pork, ground beef, shellfish, lobster, and “all the surf and turf.” Currently, cultivated chicken is the only meat that has the FDA’s green light. However, the FDA is “already engaged in discussions with multiple firms about various types of food made from cultured animal cells, including food made from seafood cells.”

When asked whether they would ever develop exotic meats like shark or kangaroo meat, Chen said, “Maybe someday. Right now, we are mainly focused on developing chicken breast, since that is the most popular type of meat.”

Chen described their blind taste tests and efforts to achieve the correct texture. The cultivated chicken breast they have is leaner in fat content than a traditional chicken breast but has the “tenderness of dark meat” and can remain juicy while being very lean because the muscle fibers never get a chance to exercise and fully develop.

“Our chickens never fly,” Chen joked.

As die-hard Texans, we take our meat very seriously — especially when it comes to barbecue.

Alan Engel, a former barbecue champion, told The Dallas Express about his love for barbecue. In 2010, he took home third place for his barbecue chicken at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Although he no longer participates in barbecue competitions, he still cooks for his family and describes barbecue as “a way of life.”

When asked whether he would ever cook with cultivated meat, Engel replied, “No, because it’s not real.”

Engel’s family has owned a farm, Engel Farms, for over 100 years in Beasely, Texas. Engel grows both cotton and maize. Additionally, the farm raises a few cattle as a side business.

“You know, like, beef when it’s grown with a cow, a lot of the meat, the texture, the flavor, and all that comes from grain and what they eat, the fat, the marbling,” said Engel.

For the moment, Upside Foods is unable to replicate marbling. Marbling is the distribution of fat throughout a cut of meat. In the cooking process, the fat melts into the tough muscle fibers and gives meat flavor and juiciness.

Engel had a lot of questions about cultivated meat. After explaining the science, its abilities, and its limitations, he replied, “I don’t know. I might try it. I mean, that’s a whole new realm.”

The facility of Upside Foods looks like something out of a science fiction novel, especially compared to Engel’s quaint barn and rolling pastures.

One year ago, Upside Foods opened its Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC). Half of the facility is devoted to a kitchen with floor-to-ceiling windows displaying the lab just behind it. The lab contains stainless steel cultivators that resemble a brewery.

Uma Valeti, Upside’s CEO said to CNN that the process is “similar to brewing beer, but instead of growing yeast or microbes, we grow animal cells.”

Scientists wear lab coats and fiddle with pressure valves to measure the growth of the animal cells inside.

“These products are not vegan, vegetarian or plant-based – they are real meat, made without the animal,” said Valeti.

EPIC lab produces 50,000 pounds of cultivated meat per year with the capacity to produce 400,000 pounds in total. Until now, the lab-grown meat they have developed has been strictly for testing purposes.

The average chicken slaughterhouse has an annual output of over 37 million pounds of chicken. In one year, the average American consumes over 80 pounds of chicken, so the Upside Foods facility has the capacity to feed 5,000 people annually in the United States.

“simultaneously the most remarkable thing I’ve ever eaten and the least remarkable thing I’ve ever eaten because it’s just chicken,” said Chen.

Chen, an Austin native, knows how near and dear barbecue is to Texans. When she was welcomed to the company a year prior, she explained to the team that “it has to be right.” The first time Chen tried cultivated meat, she described it as “simultaneously the most remarkable thing I’ve ever eaten and the least remarkable thing I’ve ever eaten because it’s just chicken.”

Engel doesn’t foresee cultivated meat overtaking traditional Texas barbecue, at least “not in [his] lifetime.”

“I don’t see [cultivated meat] being a threat to the industry yet, but as time goes on, a lot of the traditional ranchers are going by the wayside, and newer generations won’t be [raising cattle] which may make way in the industry,” predicted Engel.

To those reticent about eating cultivated meat, Chen urged them to “try it. When it comes to food, tasting is believing.”

For the moment, traditional barbecue made from living, breathing chicken and cattle will not be replaced by cultivated meat. As it stands, cultivated meat will be a premium product priced above its traditional counterpart due to the lab’s current output capacity.

However, that may soon change. Upside Foods has attracted major investors from big-name food suppliers such as Tyson Foods, NAMI, Whole Foods, Sir Richard Branson, and Bill Gates. In total, Upside Foods has raised over $600 million for the research and development of cultivated meat.