Lab-grown chicken is sold in select restaurants, not grocery stores | Fact check
BrieAnna J. FrankThe claim: US grocery stores are selling lab-grown meat
A March 28 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes two images of raw chicken the user claimed to have purchased at a grocery store.
“I just want to make everyone aware that lab grown meat is now in our markets please be careful because this looks absolutely disgusting,” the post reads in part. “There was no blood in the pack of chicken and also weird silver/white tubes inside the meat of this pack of drumsticks I purchased from Aldi.”
The user went on to describe the product as "beyond slimy."
The post was shared more than 15,000 times in one week.
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Our rating: False
Lab-grown meat is not currently being sold in U.S. grocery stores. The Department of Agriculture cleared two companies to begin producing lab-grown meat products for consumers in 2023, but the meat is only being served in a small number of restaurants. Experts told USA TODAY there is nothing abnormal about the product shown in the Facebook post.
Photo shows 'very typical' chicken
The Department of Agriculture cleared two companies, Upside Foods and GOOD Meat, to start manufacturing and selling lab-grown chicken products in 2023. Lab-grown or "cultivated" chicken is produced using animal cells grown in a lab to create meat without directly slaughtering an animal.
But the products haven’t made their way to U.S. stores yet, said Elliot Swartz, the principal scientist for cultivated meat at the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit think tank that focuses on alternative protein sources.
"Two cultivated chicken products have been approved for sale in the U.S., and the production volumes of these two products can only currently provide for limited offerings in select restaurants,” Swartz said.
Fact check: 'Lab-grown' meat made with animal cells, not human cells
Experts also told USA TODAY the picture in the post doesn’t show anything amiss.
“This picture appears to be very typical deboned chicken with typical tendons, ligaments and muscle membrane,” said Collette Kaster, chief executive officer of the American Meat Science Association.
Terry Houser, a professor and extension meat specialist at Iowa State University, also said the image appeared to be “perfectly normal chicken.”
“The silver tubes in the drumsticks are tendons that are very normal to be in that product,” Houser said. “Additionally, when all animals are properly bled at slaughter there is not significant blood present when it goes into the food supply.”
He added that spoilage bacteria could be what caused the “slimy” surface the user described.
USA TODAY has debunked an array of claims about cultivated meat, including that Aldi sells lab-grown bacon, that KFC is using lab-grown meat in its products and that lab-grown meat is cultivated from cancer cells.
Aldi declined to provide an on-the-record comment. USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Lead Stories and the Dispatch also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
- Colette Kaster, April 4, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- Terry Houser, April 4, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- Elliot Swartz, April 1, Email exchange with USA TODAY
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