Health officials have approved an Israeli company’s sale of the first ever steaks created from beef cells, rather than from a whole animal. This decision comes after the approval of lab-grown chicken in the United States last year.

In December, the Israeli Health Ministry approved Aleph Farms, located in Rehovot, Israel, according to a press release from the company. On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the news, hailing it as a significant advancement on a global scale.

The company announced their intention to offer a raised “smaller cut of steak” to customers in Israel. The meat will be produced from cells taken from a fertilized egg of a Black Angus cow named Lucy, who resides on a farm in California.

The company did not specify a timeframe for the release of the new food. Officials mentioned that they have also submitted for regulatory approval in other nations.

Aleph Farms has recently joined Upside Foods and Good Meat, both of which are California-based companies that were given approval to sell lab-grown chicken in the United States in June. There are currently over 150 companies around the world working towards creating cultivated meat, also known as “cell-cultured” or lab-grown meat.

Supporters argue that producing meat through cell cultivation will greatly decrease harm to animals and mitigate the negative impact on the environment caused by traditional meat production. However, the industry is hindered by barriers such as expensive costs and the difficulty of generating a sufficient amount of meat on a large scale to make it financially feasible and advantageous.

Rephrased: Lab-grown meat is produced in large steel tanks using cells sourced from a living animal, a fertilized egg, or a repository of stored cells. These initial cells are nourished with specific nutrients to facilitate their development into larger chunks or layers of meat, which can then be molded into common food items like cutlets or steaks.

Source: voanews.com