Off The Menu: Lab-grown meats, seafood on the horizon

Fresh from the lab: Startups make meat that avoids slaughter

Memphis Meats shows chicken it produced in a laboratory from chicken cells in Emeryville, Calif. A growing number of startups worldwide are making cell-based or cultured meat that doesn't require slaughtering animals. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)AP

The animal proteins — meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs — that have always been a focus of the restaurant dining experience have been undergoing a metamorphosis over the last several years, with plant-based substitutes and now lab-grown alternatives becoming increasingly available and, more importantly, competitive in terms of both eating quality and price.

The story of plant-derived ground beef replacements like those manufactured by Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods is already well known, and both products have found places on restaurant menus.

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