Cultivated meat company Mission Barns has received a “No Questions” letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is said to make the company the first in the world to receive regulatory clearance for cultivated pork fat.
The letter indicates that the FDA has completed a rigorous evaluation of Mission Barns’ safety assessment for its cultivated fat, and is satisfied that the product is “as safe as comparable foods”.
Following the regulatory approval, Mission Barns has announced that Fiorella, a leading Italian restaurant group in the San Francisco area, will begin using the company’s cultivated bacon and meatballs. Sprouts Farmers Market will also stock Mission Barns’ products, becoming the first US grocery store to sell cultivated meat. The two chains will reportedly be the first locations in the world to offer cultivated pork.
“From the ability to source some of my favorite local ingredients to the prices on our menus, the vulnerability of our global food supply chain impacts every aspect of my business,” said Brandon Gillis, co-founder at Fiorella. “I’ve been keeping tabs on the cultivated meat industry as a potential solution, and after meeting with Mission Barns and tasting its products, I wanted to make sure we created a partnership for this historic moment.”
“Fat-first approach”
Mission Barns was founded in 2018 and offers two flagship products, Italian Style Cultivated Meatballs and Applewood Smoked Cultivated Bacon. Both are made with cultivated pork fat and plant protein.
The company announced in 2022 that its products were ready for market launch pending regulatory approval, adding that it had submitted a complete package of information to US regulatory agencies. Last year, Mission Barns said it had engineered a new bioreactor to optimize cultivated meat production, aiming to replace the single-cell suspension bioreactors traditionally used in the pharmaceutical industry.
“Consumers won’t eat food that isn’t absolutely delicious — which is why we chose to pursue a fat-first approach,” said Eitan Fischer, founder and CEO of Mission Barns. “Not only is fat the main driver of flavor and juiciness, but it is also less costly and faster to produce than lean meat. We believe in giving consumers more choice — people looking for delicious, healthy, and responsibly produced meat are excited to try our products. By advancing
cultivated meat production, we are helping to create a more resilient and reliable food system and reinforcing American leadership in food innovation.”
