Upside Foods grows lab-created meat, possible new customer base in Glenview

CHICAGO (CBS) -- North suburban Glenview could be getting in on the ground floor of a growing industry.

It'll soon be home to a massive production plant that will grow meat.

It's not vegan or vegetarian.

It's actual meat grown from animal cells.

CBS 2's Noel Brennan spoke with the California company planning to produce millions of pounds of cultivated meat right in the Chicago area.

"The state of Illinois and Chicagoland has a lot of strategic importance for us."

A California company sees an upside to building in Glenview at the site of the old Allstate campus.

"It's a major transportation crossroads which gives us a lot of advantage from a logistics and distribution perspective."

Sheetal Shah is with Upside Foods and calls it "cultivated meat."

"We grow real meat that tastes delicious just like the meat that all consumers love, but we grow it from animal cells," Shah said.

They grow it in stainless steel tanks called bioreactors. After a couple of weeks – cells are harvested and shaped – into meat ready to eat.

 "Without the negative consequences of harming the animal, the environmental impact," Shah said.

How are people sold on the concept and the food?

"We let our product sell itself and we put it in front of consumers, and we allow them to try it and then we allow them to make the choice, but early indications indicate that our demand is really strong giving us the confidence that we'll need a facility like the one that we're building in Glenview," Shah said.

Upside Foods plans to break ground this year on a 187,000-square-foot production plant – bigger than most Costcos. The company said it'll create more than 75 new jobs and be up and running in 2025.

"Initially, we're going to be focusing on restaurants and the food service distribution," Shah said.

The company intends to build a new facility right across the street from Mariano's.

"Our job is to continue to scale our production, and we have to be available where consumers are," Shah said.

Upside Foods is counting on consumers having a growing appetite.

"We see a path towards making over 30 million pounds of meat on an annual basis," added Shah.

In:
• Glenview