YouTube superstar visits cultivated meat company
MrBeast, who has 464 million subscribers on YouTube, posted a video of him touring Californian cell-cultivated meat company UPSIDE Foods.
Photo: MrBeast
Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast – a YouTube sensation with hundreds of millions of followers - can be seen visiting a cultivated meat facility in one of his viral videos.
The video, titled $1 vs $1,000,000,000 Futuristic Tech, showcases advanced technologies that range from $1 to $1billion in cost. UPSIDE Foods, a company creating cultivated food products, appears in the $200 segment.
In the video, which has received over 77 million views so far, UPSIDE Foods explain to Donaldson how they create their cultivated meat: “When we took cells from a chicken egg in 2018, we cracked an egg, we took a small amount of cells, and we froze them. Step two is we take those cells and we gently thaw them out. Once we get enough of them, we move on to step three. This is protein, fat, sugar – literally feeding the chicken cells so that they can multiply into chicken meat.” When the cells have multiplied enough, they are transferred to larger-size cultivators. After a few weeks, the meat is ready to be shaped – in this case of UPSIDE Foods, it is made into a chicken fillet.
The company also reminds that, aside from saving countless chickens, the other “upside” to UPSIDE Foods is that the cultured meat is free from disease risk, something that is rife on factory farms. “Honestly, it seems too good to be true,” reacts Donaldson.
After trying a sandwich with traditionally made chicken and one with UPSIDE Foods' cultivated chicken, Donaldson commented on not being able to taste a difference: "I honestly can't tell. No matter what, both of them taste really good."
Following the video, UPSIDE Foods CEO Uma Valeti posted about the experience on LinkedIn: “MrBeast and his friends visited our facility to learn how cultivated meat is made and experience a tasting. This segment highlights innovations setting the foundation for the future of humanity.”
The California-based startup UPSIDE made history back in 2023 when it became the first company to be granted approval from the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to sell cultivated meat, after years of safety testing.
With their stint on MrBeast's channel, the company is the first cultivated meat brand to feature in a major creator's content.
This isn't MrBeast's first foray into cell-cultivated products: Donaldson has previously expressed a desire to sell cultivated meat at his burger chain, MrBeast Burger.
In an interview with Forbes, he said: “The second someone can make cultivated meat that actually tastes good enough where people don’t even notice, then I’m all for it. I’m switching in a heartbeat".
Cultivated meat's path to mainstream popularity remains unclear, with countries such as Singapore and Israel fast-tracking approvals and access while others, such as Italy and part of the United States, planning to implement bans.
While it’s not for retail sale just yet, UPSIDES’s cultivated chicken has been showcased in the US at tasting events (see what Species Unite founder Elizabeth Novogratz thought here).
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