Can you make meat without an animal? Hampton Creek is betting its future on it

Josh Tetrick has gone up against Big Mayo, the egg industry, Target, and his own staff and board of directors.

Now, the 37-year-old entrepreneur behind Hampton Creek is vowing to beat a handful of food-tech startups to market a meat made without an animal.

"We're about to sell a product before the end of next year," said Tetrick, whose company says it has cultured chicken flesh in a lab, then mixed it with other ingredients to craft prototype chicken fingers.

"It's not plant-based; it's 100 percent meat," Tetrick said, adding that the company believes it "can make chicken that tastes as good as the best chicken on the planet" - as well as beef or fish.

To get there, Hampton Creek rebuilt its board after the previous members exited en masse in June