Inside the Lab Where the Future of Food is Made. UPSIDE Foods Opens its 'EPIC' Facility to the Public
The food tech company has hosted the first public tour of its 53,000 square foot laboratory as part of its efforts introduce consumers to cultivated meat.
Credit: UPSIDE Foods
Food tech pioneer, UPSIDE Foods, formerly Memphis Meats, has hosted its first public tour around its Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC) in Emeryville as part of its efforts to educate the public about cultivated meat and its sustainability and animal protection benefits.
EPIC, a $50 million, 53,000-square-foot facility, designed to produce hundreds of thousands of pounds of cultivated meat of any species, opened last November. It is the largest laboratory dedicated to the production of cultivated meat to date, and it was built with transparency in mind.
Credit: UPSIDE Foods
The first tour went ahead on the 7 March and included a walk around the facility, a presentation detailing how cultivated meat is produced, and a meet and greet with UPSIDE's founder and CEO and former cardiologist, Dr. Uma Valeti. Thanks to the success of the first event, it’s expected that UPSIDE will host tours of its facility every quarter.
"In order for cultivated meat to have a positive impact on the world, consumers need to understand it and embrace it," said Valeti. "We know that the more people learn about cultivated meat, the more excited they become about it. That's why we intentionally designed EPIC to be a place where people can come and see for themselves how our process works. These tours offer an unprecedented view into meat cultivation and production. For the first time, delicious and sustainable meat can be produced under one roof, in the middle of an urban community, and in full view of consumers."
The first public tour of EPIC comes shortly after UPSIDE’s acquisition of cultivated seafood company, Cultured Decadence as part of its efforts to accelerate the commercialization of cultivated seafood and reduce ocean destruction caused by the industrial fishing industry.
What is cultivated meat?
Cultivated meat is produced directly from animal cells - but there is no slaughter involved. Simply put, cells are painlessly taken from a living animal and then scientists feed and nurture the cells so that they multiply. This method can be used to produce meat, fish, and dairy products all while removing the need to raise and farm animals for food.
This industry has the potential to spare the trillions of animals slaughtered by the meat and seafood industries. Commercial production is also expected to occur entirely without antibiotics and is likely to result in fewer incidences of foodbourne illnesses, according to Nature Food. And prospective lifestyle assessments indicate that cultivated meat will use significantly less land and water, emit fewer greenhouse gases, and reduce agriculture-related pollution and eutrophication.
Investors are seeing the game-changing potential of cultivated animal products - over the last two years, almost $2.5 billion has been invested into the sector.
"Walking into EPIC showed me what it must have felt like to walk into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory,” commented Species Unite founder, Elizabeth Novogratz, who visited UPSIDE’s EPIC plant exclusively last November. “It felt miraculous and beyond exciting and, honestly, I felt like I was standing in the middle of the most hopeful place on Earth. UPSIDE Foods and its EPIC factory are the beginning of the end of factory farming and slaughterhouses.”
Interested in touring UPSIDE’S new facility? Join the waitlist to receive updates on future tours, and check out this virtual walkthrough.
Learn more about UPSIDE Foods and its mission to change the world’s food system by listening to the Species Unite podcast episode with founder and CEO Uma Valeti.
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Species Unite
A collection of stories of those who fight the good fight on behalf of animals.
Alabama has become to second US state to prohibit the production and sale of cultivated meat, following Florida’s recent ban.