Feds give okay to pigging out on lab-grown pork with no pig in it

Mission Barns bets salami eaters won’t know their lab-grown pork butts from fat meat

SAN FRANCISCO,  California––Can salami eaters tell lab-grown pork butts from fat meat?

Or will they react to them as to green eggs and ham,  offered by the Dr. Seuss character Sam-I-am:

“I do not like it,  Sam-I-am!  It may be good for pigs and the planet,  but I don’t give a damn!”

The San Francisco-based biotech company Mission Barns is betting $60 million in start-up expense that bacon buffs will not know the difference,  or will not care,  and will conclude,  “Say,  I like lab-grown ham!  I do,  I like it,  Sam-I-am!  Thank you,  thank you,  Sam-I-am!”

FDA approval

Mission Barns on March 7,  2025 announced that it had received final U.S. Food & Drug Administration approval to allow consumers to pig out,  literally,  on pork with no pig in it.

The initial consumer offering will not spare many of the 1.5 billion pigs raised and slaughtered every year worldwide,  or the 132 million pigs raised and slaughtered per year in the U.S.,  but the technology could eventually put the whole factory-farmed pork industry out of business ––if consumers buy that pork need not be produced in a living pig through a hellacious combination of cruelty with noxious pollution.

“Italian restaurant Fiorella,  which has four locations in San Francisco,  will serve the products on its menu as part of the launch campaign,”  wrote San Francisco Chronicle food and wine reporter Mario Cortez.

No release date or price yet

“The company also has plans to distribute its products like meatballs with an Italian herb mix and a bacon described as applewood-smoked to Sprouts Farmers Market locations,”  Cortez said,  but added,  “The company did not provide a date by which they would be available or a suggested retail price.

“Other lab-grown meats,  all chicken,  have appeared on menus at restaurants as part of special events,  but have never been sold in stores,”  Cortez noted,  mentioning “Cultivated chicken producers Upside Foods in Berkeley and Alameda’s Good Meat,  from the company behind the chicken egg substitute Just Egg.”

The Upside Foods and Good Meat products were cleared for sale in 2022 and 2023,  respectively,  but have been slow to compete for consumer market share.

“San Francisco’s Michelin-starred Bar Crenn was the first to offer cultivated chicken on a menu,  serving Upside Foods at special tastings in 2023.  It discontinued them the following year,”  Cortez said.

Lab-grown pork is combined with plant-based proteins

Previewed Elaine Watson for AgFunder News on August 15,  2024,  “Founded in 2018 by former Eat Just scientist Eitan Fischer,  Mission Barns grows cultivated pork fat in proprietary bioreactors it claims can dramatically improve the efficiency of the production process.

“The fat is then combined with plant-based proteins to create meat alternatives such as sausages and bacon.

“Unlike some other startups in the field,”  Watson explained,  “Mission Barns is not genetically engineering naturally adherent cells that need to attach to something to grow,  so they can grow in standard stir-tank bioreactors in liquid suspension.”

Turning conventional lab-grown process around

Instead,  Mission Barns vice president of technology Saam Shahrokhi told Watson,  “We’re engineering systems to [work with] the cells,  rather than engineering cells to work with traditional systems [bioreactors].  Existing bioreactors can’t be used to effectively produce non-genetically modified cultivated muscle and fat.

“The cells are also a bit easier to work with,”  Shahrokhi added,  “as opposed to cells that become muscle cells.  Right now,  we’re focused on pig fat,  but the advantage of our bioreactor is that it’s cell line agnostic,  so a lot of the process development we do is applicable to fat of all kinds of species.  The bioreactor can also be used for muscle cells.”

“Creating a new category”

Finished Watson,  “As to whether existing alt meat brands would want to compromise their 100% plant-based credentials by using cultivated animal fat,  even if no animals were harmed in its production,   Shahrokhi said:  ‘I think we’re talking about creating a new category.  For most consumers [who are not vegan or vegetarian],  what matters is that food tastes delicious,  and is ideally good for them, sustainable and humane.”

Posted Mission Barns itself to its website on September 9, 2024,  “As the alternative protein industry continues to innovate and expand, many companies have centered their efforts on perfecting beef and chicken.  The reasons for this focus may be that beef is the largest livestock contributor to climate change,  while chicken is the most consumed meat in many major markets, with demand steadily growing.

“However, few companies are working on providing alternatives to conventional pork.”

“Pork is the world’s favorite meat”

Mission Barns argued that producing lab-grown pork should be a priority because,  “Pork is the world’s favorite meat.

“Cultivating pork through cellular agriculture,  rather than raising livestock,  eliminates the risk of spreading zoonotic diseases and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.”

And,  “Cultivated pork can address the market gap in pork alternatives.  Pork products, especially those rich in fat like bacon, have unique flavor profiles and textures that are beloved by consumers.  However,  replicating these characteristics with plant-based ingredients has proven challenging.  This gap in the market signifies a substantial opportunity for companies like Mission Barns.”

“An important step”

The introduction of a commercially marketed lab-grown pork product “is an important step for the nascent field of cellular agriculture,”  assessed Slaughter-Free America blogger Jon Hochschartner,

“Still,  Mission Barns’  need to mix their cultivated pork fat with plant-based offerings, to make the former economically viable,”  Hochschartner wrote,  “underlines how much further technological progress is required.

“While I’m very excited about the impending release of Mission Barns’ cultivated pork fat,”  Hochschartner emphasized,  “that it can’t be sold as part of a wholly cultivated product demonstrates the need for more research in the field.

Government money?

“Our political leaders, at the both the federal and state level, should direct government money toward cellular agriculture development,”  Hochschartner opined, “for the sake of animal welfare, public health and the environment.”

The Donald Trump regime,  however,  feet firmly planted in the public trough through the support of voters in the major pig-producing states,  is highly unlikely to do that,  least of all “for the sake of animal welfare,  public health and the environment.”

None of these are visible concerns of either agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins or Donald Trump himself.

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