Friday, March 08, 2019

FDA and USDA agree on how to regulate cell-based meat, but the big question remains: can it be called meat?

The federal government's top food-safety agencies agreed Thursday on how to share regulatory responsibility for cell-based meat, the laboratory-grown animal protein frequently called "fake meat." The Food and Drug Administration will regulate cell collection and growth, and the Department of Agriculture will oversee harvesting, processing and labeling.

"Despite farm groups’ opposition to cell-based meat, the FDA-USDA agreement was welcomed across the board as a wise collaboration that will take advantage of the expertise of both agencies," Chuck Abbott reports for Successful Farming. "Ag groups generally cloaked their objections in statements that called for accurate labels and maintaining consumer confidence in the food supply."

The move is an effort to get a handle on cell-based meat before it hits markets; it's not yet approved for sale anywhere in the world, but more than three dozen companies are working on products and some will likely begin limited sales soon, Abbott reports. The agreement could provide a road map for states considering their own laws on the product, like the one passed this week in Kentucky.

Whether the products should be called meat remains the biggest issue for farm and meat groups. The North American Meat Institute, speaking for the meat industry, said cell-based meat is probably in-line with the USDA's definition of meat and meat products. But "an array of farm groups say such terms as meat, beef, poultry, and roast should be used only for flesh from livestock. The U.S. Cattlemen’s Association, an early advocate of restricting traditional meat terminology to livestock, said the USDA ought to create a new inspection stamp for cell-based meat so that there won’t be any confusion about the source," Abbott reports. "The larger National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said, 'Ensuring that all lab-grown fake meat products are safely and accurately labeled remains NCBA’s top priority.' The two largest U.S. farm groups, the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union, say cell-based products should not be called meat."

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