Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said he plans to investigate Campbell Soup Company over allegations it uses “lab grown meat” in soups — a claim the company vehemently denies.

The investigation comes after a TV station in Detroit reported Monday on an audio recording of a Campbell’s vice president criticizing the company for using “bioengineered meat” and saying that he didn’t want to “eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3-D printer.”

Uthmeier responded to the report in a Monday post on X, where he vowed to look into it.

“Florida law bans lab-grown meat. Our Consumer Protection division is launching an investigation and will demand answers from Campbell’s,” Uthmeier wrote.

In a statement posted to the company’s website, Campbell’s denied the claims, saying it uses chicken from “long-trusted, USDA approved U.S. suppliers” in its soups.

“Campbell’s soups are made with real chicken. Period,” it said.

“We take enormous pride in the food we make. Our soups are made with real ingredients, including real chicken meat that meets our high standards for taste, quality, and safety,” the company wrote.

In 2024, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law that banned the use of lab-grown meat in Florida, becoming the first state to do so.

Campbell’s does use “bioengineered food ingredients,” but that refers to genetically modified crops, such as canola, corn, soybean and sugar beets, not chicken, it said.

Lab-grown meat, or “cultivated meat” involves growing animal cells and arranging them in a similar way to animal tissue instead of raising livestock. It’s been hailed by some researchers as potentially better for the environment and healthier for people, as labs can control for diseases without the use of antibiotics, according to a 2020 National Institutes of Health study.

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