Traditional, Not Conventional

UPSIDE Foods is inspired by the simple joys of mealtime: the hearty embrace of a chicken pot pie with its golden, flaky crust, the comforting warmth of chicken noodle soup, the taste of a freshly-grilled burger on the 4th of July. The chicken that UPSIDE currently grows, derived from cells of an ancient breed of chicken,  known for its rich flavor, promises a taste that harkens back to when chicken tasted like, well, chicken (before factory farming took its toll on flavor).

The push for mass production has compromised not just animal welfare but the very taste that made chicken a staple of comfort food. Through selective breeding for rapid growth and unnaturally large breast muscle, the industry has sacrificed the richness and complexity of chicken’s flavor. The very taste that once made chicken a culinary favorite. UPSIDE is committed to reversing this trend, harnessing the cells of heritage breeds to bring back the robust flavors lost to industrial-scale chicken farming.

To capture the authentic taste of chicken in our cultivated meat, our Food Research And Development team dives deep into the essence of what makes meat taste like meat. Using a sensory evaluation panel, they evaluate over 120 distinct attributes of chicken, meticulously assessing our cultivated chicken. This process involves an intricate analysis of flavor, aroma, taste, and aftertaste, crafting a “flavor fingerprint” that provides insight into opportunities to further improve the flavor.

But our pursuit of flavor doesn’t stop there; we’ve pioneered the new science of understanding and perfecting what makes our cultivated meat so satisfying. This has led us to examining the exact nutrients, selecting the optimal cells, and fine-tuning the growing conditions to unlock the most flavorful chicken imaginable, a process we are still working to perfect. This isn’t just cultivating meat —it’s a meticulous scientific process dedicated to discovering how to make our chicken not just good, but irresistibly delicious.

Texture is everything in the meaty dishes we cherish, and at UPSIDE, we’re not just mimicking; we’re mastering. UPSIDE is the only cultivated meat company to have developed full-textured chicken tissue (something many never thought possible.) This means everything from the sensation of chewing to the texture against your lips and fingers is familiar.

Central to our success is the selection of specific cells, chosen for their ability to recreate the authentic texture and flavor of traditional chicken. We focus on fibroblast cells, the unsung heroes that build the structural framework for animal muscle tissue. By homing in on fibroblast cells, we mirror the natural growth and development process of chicken, ensuring our cultivated meat has the familiar chew, tenderness, and juiciness of traditional chicken.

Achieving the perfect texture in our cultivated chicken is a complex endeavor, largely because the process requires a nurturing environment unlike any other. This environment must mimic conditions inside a chicken—a monumental challenge given that our cells are cultivated outside of an animal. Traditional off-the-shelf equipment simply doesn’t exist for this pioneering field, which led to the formation of our dedicated Mechanical Engineering Team. This talented group isn’t just working with existing technology; they’re inventing it, creating state-of-the-art cell cultivators from the ground up. Engineered to simulate the natural growth conditions within a chicken, they provide the precise temperature, oxygen levels, and nutrients required for our fibroblast cells to grow, mature, and develop the same texture and consistency as real chicken meat.

Getting taste and texture right means nothing if our chicken isn’t safe, which is why safety is paramount at UPSIDE. When it came to developing our safety standards, we had to start from scratch. The USDA and FDA didn’t have a playbook for cultivated meat, which meant our Regulatory Affairs team worked closely to develop a new set of guidelines that upgraded the safety standards beyond what is required for conventional meat. With the USDA and FDA, we laid the foundation for an industry first: a dossier disclosing our production methodology verifying our process’ safety, ensuring every step from cell selection to packaging met unprecedented levels of safety and quality. 

The FDA kick-starts our cultivated chicken’s journey by scrutinizing the sourcing, selection, and growth of cells, while the USDA takes the baton following harvest to ensure our meat is safely processed, packaged, and accurately labeled.  This culminated in approval to sell in July 2023 was a historic milestone, marking the first time cultivated meat was recognized as safe for consumer sale in the U.S. 

Beyond ticking off all the regulatory checkboxes, we took it upon ourselves to dive deeper, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible to achieve the highest-quality meat. Our cutting-edge process is inherently sterile (otherwise our cells wouldn’t grow). After harvest, we rigorously monitor for bacterial contamination, a potential risk that increases at this stage. Despite this, our ultra-sensitive testing methods, both in-house and through independent labs, have consistently found no detectable levels of salmonella, listeria, or E. coli in our products… ever. This isn’t just meeting safety standards; it’s about crafting the world’s safest chicken.

So, as you savor every bite of our cultivated chicken, know that it’s not only a taste revolution but a safety sensation, crafted with care, rigor, and a dash of UPSIDE audacity. Welcome to the future of meat, where safety and flavor go hand in hand, promising a feast that’s as reassuring as it is delicious.