Wired reports Upside relies mainly on small roller bottles rather than large bioreactors

Upside Foods/Cultivated chicken

A Wired investigation by Joe Fassler, based on current and former Upside staff, reported that the company's whole-cut cultivated chicken is grown in 2-liter roller bottles yielding 2–3 grams each, not large bioreactors as factory tours suggested. Wholecut production takes seven days using hand assembly from multiple bottles to create a single fillet, while bioreactors struggle to reliably produce tissue sheets needed for whole cuts.

• Production method: whole cuts hand-assembled from small 2-liter roller bottles each yielding 2–3 grams of tissue
• Scale: average chicken breast weighs 170 grams; each roller bottle produces 2–3 grams requiring extensive assembly
• Timeline: seven-day process for wholecut production versus ground products taking 7–14 days of cell growth
• Bioreactor gap: large bioreactors prominently featured at facility cannot reliably produce tissue sheets needed for whole cuts