US cell-based meat business Upside Foods is to set up its first “large-scale” factory.

The California-based business is selling its cultivated meat in restaurants after receiving regulatory approval in June.

Yesterday (14 September), the company announced its plans for a new facility, a sign of its belief in the prospects for the nascent industry.

The 187,000-square-foot plant will be located in Glenview in Illinois. Upside Foods said the first product to be made at the site will be cell-cultivated chicken, “with plans to expand to other species and whole-textured formats in the future”.

In a statement, Upside Foods said the facility will have an “initial capacity to produce millions of pounds of cultivated meat products per year and the potential to expand to over 30m pounds”.

Upside Foods told Just Food it plans to start production "soon" and is aiming to launch products in 2025

In June, the US Department of Agriculture cleared cell-based chicken from Upside Foods – and from a second company, Good Meat – for sale.

At the time, Upside Foods said its first product to hit the market would be a “whole-textured chicken product that is over 99% cultivated chicken cells”.

The company is selling its cell-based chicken at Bar Crenn in San Francisco “for monthly dinner services”.

The company has attracted investment from US meat giants Tyson Foods and Cargill. It has raised more than $600m to date.

[Link src="https://www.just-food.com/interviews/upside-foods-amy-chen-we-are-here-because-we-want-to-change-the-world/?cf-view" title="Interview, March 2013: “We are here because we want to change the world” – Upside Foods’ Amy Chen on the US cultivated-meat firm’s plans post-FDA approval" font-size="18px"]