Lab-grown meat techniques aren't new – cell cultures are common tools in science, but bringing them up to scale to meet society's demand for meat will require further development

Cell cultures are often grown in petri dishes. Wladimir Bulgar/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

You might be old enough to remember the famous “Where’s the Beef?” Wendy’s commercials. This question may be asked in a different context since U.S. regulators approved the sale of lab-grown chicken meat made from cultivated cells in June 2023.

Growing animal cells in the lab isn’t new. Scientists have been culturing animal cells in artificial environments since the 1950s, initially focusing on studying developmental biology and cancer. This technique remains one of the major tools in life science research, especially for drug development.