The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) published today an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) to solicit comments and information regarding the labeling of meat and poultry products made using cultured animal cells.
The USDA and FDA currently have a joint agreement to oversee these products. The FDA will oversee cell collection, growth, and differentiation of cells, and then transfer oversight to FSIS to oversee cell harvest, processing, packaging, and labeling.
Other than new labeling regulations, FSIS doesn’t intend to issue any other new food safety regulations for cell-cultured food products. The agency notes that current sanitation and HACCP requirements are “immediately applicable and sufficient to ensure the safety of products cultured from the cells of livestock and poultry.”
The current ANPR is aimed at gathering comments on the following topics:
- Consumer expectations about the labeling of these products, especially in light of the nutritional composition and organoleptic qualities (taste, color, odor, or texture)
- Names for these products that would be neither false nor misleading
- Economic data
- Consumer research related to labeling nomenclature for products made using animal cell culture technology
The comment period will be open for 60 days.
