Citing Upside Foods, the MIT Technology Review ranked attempts at production of cell-cultivated chicken as an “epic failure” in technology. The company has now admitted that it is unable to produce a chicken substitute on a commercial scale using bioreactors. Currently the quantity produced by month using plastic roller bottles has attained quantities measured in low single digits of pounds. Whole chicken breasts can be purchased for less than $4 per lb. while a single small serving of cell-cultivated chicken at a gourmet restaurant, if available, costs in excess of $50. The laboratory-scale production by Upside Foods is energy intensive and generates a considerable volume of plastic waste.
CHICK-NEWS has previously opined on the failure of startups to produce commercial quantities of cell-cultivated meat, poultry or seafood. A number of companies including Upside Foods have raised millions from venture capital investors with little to show for installation of bioreactors and sophisticated installations intended to produce a food product lacking in texture and at a noncompetitive price compared to real meat products.
Failure to produce cell-cultivated meat of adequate quality in pilot plants should have restrained investment in larger facilities as in the case of Upside Foods that was following a “fake it ‘till you make it playbook.” The unjustified hype and hubris generated by companies operated by Josh Tetrick are an extreme example of misplaced optimism. According to lawsuits one or more of his subsidiaries ordered installations in anticipation of generating revenue and now is in default on payments to suppliers and contractors. The entire cell-cultivated meat segment has a whiff of Theranos about it.