US Government Approves Sale of Cultivated Meat by UPSIDE Foods and Eat Just, Paving the Way for Other Producers of Cultivated Meat in the US

22 June 2023

Agronomics Limited

("Agronomics" or the "Company")

Cultivated Meat Approved for Sale in the US

Agronomics (LON: ANIC), the leading listed company in cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce that cultivated meat has now been approved for sale in the US. Two cultivated meat companies, UPSIDE Foods,  Inc. ("UPSIDE Foods") and Eat Just, Inc. ("Eat Just"), have both achieved all three regulatory milestones and been granted approval from the joint United States Department of Agriculture ("USDA") and Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") framework to sell their cell-cultivated chicken to US consumers.

UPSIDE Foods received a Grant of Inspection from the USDA, which means that the company has met the applicable federal requirements and standards to operate as a meat establishment and is now allowed to process, package, and sell its cultivated chicken in the United States under the inspection of USDA'sFood Safety and Inspection Service.

This confirmation was the final hurdle in a three-step regulatory process that the company was required to meet in order to be granted approval. In November 2022, UPSIDE Foods received a 'No Questions' letter from the FDA, accepting their conclusion that their cultivated chicken is safe to eat. Earlier this month, the USDA granted UPSIDE Foods Label Approval, enabling the company to label its cell-cultivated chicken products as safe to eat in the US.

Now that UPSIDE Foods has received approval, it can begin commercial production and the process of scaling its own facilities and supply chain agreements with commercial partnerships to provide its products to the US market. UPSIDE Foods plans to produce up to 50,000 pounds of cultivated meat initially across its portfolio of products, with a projected expansion capacity of up to 400,000 pounds. In addition, work has already begun on a larger space with a planned annual capacity of millions of pounds of cultivated meat products.

Meanwhile, GOOD Meat, the cultivated meat brand of Eat Just, which went through the same rigorous process as UPSIDE Foods, received a Grant of Inspection for its demonstration plant in Alameda, California. The company, which already sells its products in Singapore, will begin producing cultivated chicken for the celebrated restaurant group José Andrés Group, which operates more than 30 restaurants across the country. A yet-to-be-disclosed restaurant in Washington, D.C. will be the first in the country to serve Eat Just's cultivated chicken.

Agronomics is confident that this landmark announcement will pave the way for government approval for other producers of cultivated meat and proteins in the US, increasing the variety of products that will be available to US consumers in the coming years. The cultivated meat sector is one of the fastest growing markets, increasing at a CAGR of 410% to 2030. It is projected that by 2040, cultivated meat could account for 35% of the global meat market, according to AT Kearney, the global consultancy firm.

Jim Mellon, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Agronomics commented:

"This announcement marks a monumental milestone in the development of the cultivated meat industry. The US government approval provides access to both UPSIDE Foods' and Eat Just's sustainable and ethical meat products in a country that is one of the world's biggest meat consumers.

"US regulations for food safety are some of the most stringent in the world. Today's approval will provide the framework for other jurisdictions across the globe to approve the sale of cellular food products. This decision has the potential to rapidly accelerate the development of the cultivated meat market in America and beyond."

About Agronomics

Agronomics is a leading listed alternative proteins company with a focus on cellular agriculture including precision fermentation and cultivated meat. The Company has established a portfolio of over 20 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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