In an announcementTrusted Source published Wednesday, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that UPSIDE Foods, a food manufacturer that creates animal meat from cells, met all of the agency’s safety requirements.

UPSIDE Foods will need to pass inspection from the United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) before the lab-grown meat heads to market.

The meatTrusted Source is produced by extracting cells from animals — in this case, poultry — that are then cultivated in a laboratory and grown into food.

Lab-grown meat has gained interest in recent years as food manufacturers try to meet the increasing demand of the growing population.

According to Ian Smith, a research professor at University of California Irvine, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, lab-grown meat production is still in the early stages and there are many more hurdles that need to be addressed in order to bring an economically-viable product to market.

How is lab-grown meat made?

After the animal cells are taken from the tissue of an animal, the cells are placed in a tightly-controlled lab environment that helps them multiply and grow.

As the cells multiply, they differentiate into various cell types, like muscle, fat, or connective tissue cells.

Once the cells have differentiated into muscle, fat, or tissue, they are harvested and prepared with typical food packaging and processing methods, according to the FDATrusted Source.

The FDA states that human food made from cultured animal cells must meet the same safety requirements as other foods.