Describing the development as “a food revolution,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday said chicken produced using animal cell culture technology that takes living cells from chickens and grows the cells in a controlled environment is safe for human consumption.

Image credit: UPSIDE Foods

Describing the development as “a food revolution,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday declared lab-grown chicken meat developed by Berkeley, California-based food-tech firm Upside Foods is safe for human consumption.

Upside Foods “will use animal cell culture technology to take living cells from chickens and grow the cells in a controlled environment to make the cultured animal cell food,” the FDA said.

The news — widely reported as anFDA “approval” of lab-grown meat— signifies the completion of the first, and biggest, of the three regulatory steps Upside Foods must complete before its“cultivated” chickenattains full approval and can be sold to the…