Mission Barns, a company focused on creating lab-grown meat for a sustainable food system, has announced the launch of its first products following regulatory clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its cell-cultivated pork fat.
The company’s debut restaurant partner is Fiorella, an Italian restaurant group in the San Francisco area. Additionally, Mission Barns will begin retail sales through a major U.S. supermarket chain, marking the first grocery store to offer cultivated meat in the U.S.
Mission Barns has developed its flagship products, Italian Style Cultivated Meatballs and Applewood Smoked Cultivated Bacon, both made with cultivated pork fat and plant-based protein. The process involves using a sample taken from a pig cultivated with plant-based nutrients in a controlled environment. This method can produce vast amounts of meat from a single animal sample, reducing the need for large-scale livestock farming and offering significant benefits for food security, greenhouse gas reduction, and resource conservation.
The company’s goal is to create a more resilient food system that is not reliant on traditional animal farming. By cultivating meat this way, it can provide healthier, more sustainable products while mitigating risks like disease outbreaks that affect livestock.
Mission Barns is the first company to receive FDA clearance for cell-cultivated pork fat, following earlier approvals for cultivated chicken. The FDA has confirmed that products made with this cultivated pork fat are deemed as safe as conventional foods.