For the very first time, American regulators granted their approval on Wednesday for the sale of chicken produced from animal cells. This decision allows two companies based in California, Upside Foods and Good Meat, to introduce “lab-grown” or “cultivated” meat onto restaurant tables across the nation, and eventually, onto supermarket shelves.

What does this mean?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has given the go-ahead to Upside Foods and Good Meat, both of which were engaged in a competitive race to become the first in the United States to offer meat that is not sourced from slaughtered animals. This type of meat is now being referred to as “cell-cultivated,” or “cultured,” meat.

This significant development ushers in a new era in meat production, with a primary focus on eradicating harm to animals and significantly mitigating the environmental consequences associated with animal grazing, feed cultivation, and animal waste.

Using cells from either a live animal, a bank of stored cells, or a fertilized egg, cultivated meat is then grown in steel tanks.When produced by Upside, it comes out in large sheets that are then formed into different shapes, like chicken cutlets and sausages.

Josh Tetrick, the co-founder and CEO of Eat Just, the parent company of Good Meat, commented, “Instead of utilizing extensive land and water resources to feed the multitude of animals that are traditionally raised for slaughter, we have the opportunity to pursue an alternative approach.”

However, you won’t find cultivated meat in the U.S. anytime soon. Cultivated chicken has proven to be more expensive to produce than meat from farmed birds, and cannot yet be produced on the scale of meat as we know it currently.

More than 150 companies from around the world are focusing on producing meat from cells – not only chicken, but pork, lamb, fish. Beef is the next frontier as it has the largest impact on the environment, according to scientists.