Fact Check: What’s the Deal With Lab-Grown Chicken Nuggets?

Lab-grown meat may sound like something you'd expect to see featured in a sci-fi movie, but it's actually poised to be the wave of the future. That's because researchers and those in the industry say that this type of meat could replace the traditional farmed meat, which has been criticized for being cruel to animals and a drain on our planet's resources.

Lab-grown chicken nuggets are among the types of projects that industry leaders are working on in the quest to "grow" more of our food, and it sounds like researchers believe that this type of meat could be accessible to everyone by 2035 at the latest.

Keep reading to learn more about lab-grown meat, including how chicken nuggets can be created out of thin air, and when you can expect to see these foods hit your grocery store.

When we talk about lab-grown meat, what we're actually talking about is a food-grade substance that is created using technology that allows a small piece of meat to grow into a larger one, according to The Guardian. In the instance of the chicken that was developed by Japanese researchers, they started off with a small piece of chicken that they outfitted with fibers. These fibers were hollow, and they served as faux blood vessels, delivering both nutrients and oxygen to the meat.

The meat is then kept in a gel, where it stays until it finishes growing.

In what is being hailed as a breakthrough in this department, the Japanese team was able to grow small chunks of chicken that resemble nuggets, making them a conveniently familiar food to start with. However, you shouldn't expect to see lab-grown meat on the shelves of your nearest grocery store until sometime between 2030 and 2035, according to the researchers working on the project.

The process of creating this type of food will set off very slowly and at a small scale. That's partly due to the technology needed to mass produce the chicken, but also because prices will likely be quite high to buy the meat, which could hamper the demand for it. But, there's a chance that over time, lab grown meat like chicken nuggets could become the wave of the future.

And that will likely be exciting news for those who believe that traditional farming is no longer beneficial to our planet.

While the appeal of lab-grown meat may be that it it's less harmful to animals, since they aren't required to be kept in pens — where they could be mistreated, abused, and slaughtered, lab-grown meat is made using the byproducts of animals, including cells and tissues. As such, it's not designed for those who are pursuing a vegan or strict vegetarian lifestyle.

While that's not to say that future advancements in this area couldn't get it there, the process that most facilities are working with just aren't set up that way.