Believer Meats receives USDA approval to sell cultivated chicken in the US
Israeli startup becomes first foreign company cleared to market cell-cultured poultry in the country
USA – Israel-based Believer Meats has obtained final approval from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to produce and sell its cultivated chicken, completing the regulatory process required for commercial distribution in the country.
The clearance comes months after the company received a “no questions” letter from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), confirming that its cultivated chicken met safety standards for human consumption.
With the USDA’s approval covering both its product label and production facility in North Carolina, Believer Meats can now begin commercial manufacturing and sales within the US and potentially export to other markets.
The company’s Wilson County plant, completed earlier this year, is described as the world’s largest cultivated meat facility, covering 200,000 square feet and capable of producing 12,000 tonnes of chicken annually.
Founded in 2018 by Hebrew University professor Yaakov Nahmias, Believer Meats—formerly known as Future Meat Technologies—develops cultivated meat using fibroblast cells from fertilised chicken eggs.
The cells are adapted to grow in suspension culture without serum and are multiplied in bioreactors until they form a mass that can be harvested, washed, and processed into meat-like material with similar composition and nutrition to conventional chicken.
The company has focused on improving efficiency through techniques such as tangential flow filtration and an animal-free culture medium costing US$0.63 (KSh96) per litre, which it says helps reduce production costs.
It also claims to achieve biomass expansion of 130 billion cells per litre, with a yield rate of 43% weight per volume, through a continuous bioreactor process that allows daily harvesting for over 20 days.
Believer Meats estimates that its cultivated chicken could be produced at about US$6.20 (KSh950) per pound when scaled to a 50,000-litre operation, bringing costs closer to that of organic chicken sold under the USDA label.
Part of a Growing List of Cultivated Meat Producers
The approval makes Believer Meats the first non-US company to gain USDA clearance for cultivated meat and the fifth globally approved to sell such products in the country.
It follows previous approvals granted to Upside Foods and Eat Just for chicken, Wildtype for salmon, and Mission Barns for pork.
Despite bans on cultivated meat in seven US states and ongoing challenges in attracting investment, regulatory progress has accelerated this year, with eight startups worldwide securing some form of market approval in 2025.
Among them, Australia’s Vow has begun selling cultured quail, while Singapore-based Parima and Friends & Family Pet Food Co have received approval for cultivated chicken and pet food products, respectively.
In Europe, Biocraft Pet Nutrition and Umami Bioworks have registered their cultivated ingredients as feed materials, marking another step toward broader acceptance of lab-grown proteins in global markets.
Sign up HERE to receive our email newsletters with the latest news and insights from Africa and around the world, and follow us on our WhatsApp channel for updates.
