Agricultural Company Receives USDA Label Approval for Lab-Grown Meat Products in US Market

16June 2023

Agronomics Ltd

("Agronomics" or the "Company")

USDA Gives First Label Approval to a Lab Grown Meat Company

Agronomics (LON: ANIC), the leading listed company in cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce that UPSIDE Foods, Inc. ("UPSIDE Foods"), has become the first cell-cultivated meat company in the world to receive Label Approval from the US Department of Agriculture ("USDA"). This marks a significant milestone for the cultivated meat industry towards full regulatory approval and eventual commercialisation.

The USDA granted UPSIDE Foods Label Approval on 12 June 2023, enabling the company to label its cell-cultivated chicken products as safe to eat in the US. This is a first for a cell-cultivated meat company and represents a momentous step forward for the entire industry. The development follows on from UPSIDE Foods being the first company to have its cell-cultivated products designated as safe to eat by the US Food and Drug Administration ("FDA"), as detailed in the Agronomics announcement released 17 November 2022.

There is now only one further step before UPSIDE Foods achieves full approval to sell its cell-cultivated products in the US market. This involves the USDA providing a Grant of Inspection to UPSIDE Foods production facility, thereby confirming it meets US federal operating requirements for meat & poultry facilities. 

Agronomics is confident that these developments will pave the way FDA and USDA approvals for other producers of cultivated meat and proteins, such that a wide variety of products will be available to US consumers in the coming years. It is projected that by 2040, cultivated meat could reach 35% of the global meat market.

Jim Mellon, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Agronomics commented: "We are delighted that UPSIDE Foods successfully concluded the second of the three steps required to achieve approval for the sale of its products into the US. This clearly indicates the positive direction of travel for our industry, and we are confident that cultivated meat products will soon be on US shelves. 

"In addition, US regulations for food safety are some of the most stringent in the world, such that the decisions of the FDA and USDA pave the way for other jurisdictions across the globe to approve the sale of cellular food products. We look forward to providing further updates on these exciting developments as they occur."

About Agronomics

Agronomics is a leading listed alternative proteins company with a focus on cellular agriculture and cultivated meat. The Company has established a portfolio of 24 companies in this rapidly advancing sector. It seeks to secure minority stakes in companies owning technologies with defensible intellectual property that offer new ways of producing food and materials with a focus on products historically derived from animals. These technologies are driving a major disruption in agriculture, offering solutions to improve sustainability, as well as addressing human health, animal welfare and environmental damage. This disruption will decouple supply chains from the environment and animals, as well as being fundamental to feeding the world's expanding population. A full list of Agronomics' portfolio companies is available at https://agronomics.im/.

About Cellular Agriculture

Cellular Agriculture is the production of agriculture products directly from cells, as opposed to raising an animal for slaughter, or growing crops. This encompasses cell culture to produce cultivated meat and materials, and fermentation processes that harness a combination of molecular biology, synthetic biology, tissue engineering and biotechnology to massively simplify production methods in a sustainable manner.

Over the coming decades, the source of the world's food supply traditionally derived from conventional agriculture is going to change dramatically. We have already witnessed the first wave of this shift with the consumer adoption of plant-based alternative proteins but today, we are on the cusp of an even bigger wave of change. This is being facilitated by advances in cellular agriculture. This change is necessary, given scientists claims that if we maintain existing animal protein consumption patterns, then we will not meet the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5℃.

 AT Kearney, a global consultancy firm, projects that cultivated meat's market share will reach 35% by 2040. This combined with the Good Food Institute's estimate that a US $1.8 trillion investment will be required in order to produce just 10% of the world's protein using this technology, means that we are on the cusp of a multi-decade flow of capital to build out manufacturing facilities. Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is accelerating, however still less than US$ 5 billion has been invested worldwide since the industry's inception in 2016.

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