USDA issues its first-ever inspection grant for a large-scale cultivated meat factory.
Believer Meats becomes the fifth startup — and first non-U.S. company — cleared to sell cell-cultured meat in the U.S.
North Carolina facility set to produce 12,000 tonnes of cultivated chicken annually.
Believer Meats, an Israeli startup pioneering cell-cultured meat, has secured the final regulatory greenlight it needs to begin commercial production and sales in the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has completed its first and only inspection grant for a large-scale cultivated meat factory — Believer’s new 200,000-square-foot facility in Wilson County, North Carolina.
The USDA also approved the company’s product labeling, officially authorizing Believer Meats to market its cultivated chicken to American consumers. The milestone follows a “no questions” letter issued in July by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), signaling regulatory confidence in the safety of the company’s product, according to Food Safety News.
Founded in 2018 by Yaakov Nahmias, a biomedical engineering professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Believer Meats is now the world’s largest cultivated meat facility. The site includes an innovation center, tasting kitchen, and production lines capable of yielding 12,000 tons of cultivated chicken each year — roughly 26 million pounds.
Cell media rejuvenation
Company CEO Gustavo Burger called the USDA’s sign-off “a major milestone that authorizes us to begin commercial production and sales of our cultivated chicken products in the U.S. and export to international markets.” Believer’s process uses centrifuge-based perfusion and a cell media rejuvenation system to grow meat from spontaneously immortalized fibroblast cells derived from fertilized chicken eggs.
Believer Meats, formerly known as Future Meat Technologies, has raised $123 million in venture funding to date. It joins a short list of cultivated meat startups cleared by both U.S. regulators — and stands out as the first non-American firm to do so.
While several states have moved to ban the sale of cell-cultured meat, North Carolina has taken a more welcoming stance. The North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBiotech) has publicly backed Believer Meats’ arrival as part of the state’s growing bioindustrial ecosystem.
“This is the first and only large-scale cultivated meat facility to have earned this approval,” Burger said, calling it the final word from U.S. regulators before the company brings its alternative chicken to market.