A federal judge rejected a challenge by cultivated meat company UPSIDE Foods to Florida’s new law banning the sale of lab-grown meat within the state.
The company filed suit against the law in August, challenging its constitutionality. The company alleged the law “imposes an inconsistent ‘ingredient requirement’ by prohibiting the sale or distribution of food products that contain cultivated chicken meat as an ingredient.” But Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote that UPSIDE could not show a law or regulation that “creates a federal ‘ingredient requirement’ with respect to ‘cultivated meat.’”
The law makes it a second-degree misdemeanor to sell or manufacture lab-grown meat in Florida. In related news, the European Commission recently found that Hungary’s ban on lab-grown meat was “unjustified” and potentially harmful to the European single market. The country proposed a ban on lab-grown meat this July, following Italy’s lead from last year.
