UPSIDE Foods Picks Chicago for its First Commercial-Scale Cultivated Meat Production Plant
UPSIDE Foods, a leading cultivated meat, poultry and seafood company, announced that it selected the greater Chicagoland region for its first large-scale cultivated meat production plant. The 187,000-square-foot plant, based in Glenview, Illinois, will start by producing ground cultivated chicken products, with plans to expand to other species and whole-textured formats in the future. With an initial capacity to produce millions of pounds of cultivated meat products per year and the potential to expand to over 30 million pounds, the plant represents a significant step forward in achieving the company's vision of creating a more humane, sustainable, and resilient food system.
The state-of-the-art plant, designed to house cultivators with capacities of up to 100,000 liters, will stand as one of the world's largest and most advanced commercial cultivated meat facilities. Building upon the knowledge gained from UPSIDE's Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC) in California, UPSIDE's new plant will cultivate meat at commercial scales and serve as a guiding force for UPSIDE's future endeavors in scaling up its operations to the next level.
"We're excited that the next chapter of our journey towards building a more sustainable, humane, and abundant future will be in Illinois," said Dr. Uma Valeti, CEO and founder of UPSIDE Foods. "Establishing our plant in this region allows us to tap into a remarkable talent pool, a thriving innovation ecosystem, and a notable history of meat production. We are grateful for the collaboration and partnership that we have built at the state, county, and local levels in our site selection process."