VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Videos circulating on social media claim lab-grown meat is making its way into grocery stores. Experts and Virginia law tell a different story.
Cultivated meat — meat grown from animal cells in a controlled environment — exists, but it is not on many grocery store shelves.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, the process starts with animal cells grown in a controlled environment.
"And then they add nutrients, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and also a growth factor and from that stem cell they're able to grow muscle, they're able to grow connective tissue, and they're able to grow fat," Shaye Arluk, a registered dietitian and nutritionist at Sentara Health, said.
Multiple companies are working on different types of cultivated meat, but where you can actually buy it is limited.
"The Internet would make you think it's everywhere. It is not," Arluk said.
The FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service are working with manufacturers to make sure products meet set requirements.
Some states, like Florida and Alabama, have fully banned the product. However, in Virginia, lawmakers have focused on strict labeling requirements rather than a full ban. As of July 1, 2026, manufactured-protein products must have a clear label when they are represented as meat or poultry.
That legislation was introduced by Sen. Angelia Williams Graves after farmers and cattlemen pushed for it. They said they support a marketplace with cultivated meat but want it to be clearly distinguished so consumers know what they are buying.
"If [the product is] plant-based, it has to say that. If they're meatless, it has to say that. If it's cell cultivated, it has to say that," Williams Graves said.
"Anything that's cultivated, fungus-based, insect-based products, they all have to just be clearly labeled so that the public knows what they are eating," Williams Graves said.
Williams Graves said it was a proactive measure.
"[Many bills are often proactive. We said,] let's go ahead and make the requirements so people [and businesses] can't say they don't know. People can't say, ‘you know, well, we didn't do anything wrong because there wasn't a law against it,’" Williams Graves said.
As for what cultivated meat means for health, Arluk said it is a more complicated question.
"We know nothing, we don't know if it's better for us, we don't know if it's worse for us." Arluk said. "I can't approve or disapprove because the human data is not there."
The technology is still developing, and research continues into its nutrition, production, impact on food supply and environmental impacts.
"You have to do your research. You have to look beyond the AI created videos and really understand what's going on," Arluk said.
Virginia Tech is currently in the middle of a five-year study to see if lab-to-table protein can help fill the gap of food insecurity while reducing the environmental footprint.
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