At the end of 2022, there were 156 startups in 26 different countries worldwide working on making meat, seafood, and animal fat and organs from cells, according to the Good Food Institute. There are 27 planned or operational facilities that can produce these products at pilot scale or larger.

Consumers in Singapore can even eat cell-based chicken. Eat Just received the world’s first regulatory approval for a cultivated meat product from the government of the Asian island nation in November 2020.

U.S. consumers are getting closer to seeing cultivated meat on plates. In November 2022, FDA gave its tacit approval to Upside Foods, ruling that its chicken products were safe to eat. Eat Just received similar approval from FDA in March 2023. USDA is now working with both companies to ensure their facilities and procedures meet standards, as well as approve product labels.

Several other cultivated meat companies are currently working with the FDA and other governmental food safety regulators. They are all working to develop their own rules and regulations for this new segment, determining how products can be safely made and distributed, as well as figuring out how they should be labeled.

These companies are also making prototypes, working to improve technology and decrease costs and scaling up. They’re partnering with food companies around the world so that once they receive regulatory approval, they have a pathway to market — and to making a difference in the industry.

Click on company names, categories of actions or products to see what’s happened in this space so far. This tracker will be continually updated.