news FDA, USDA to regulate lab-grown meat industry

[VOSS]

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Companies creating lab-grown steak, chicken, and fish see a recent White House announcement as a signal that meat grown without animal slaughter is on the cusp of being legally sold and eaten in the US.

 

“We are laser focused on commercial-scale production, and for us, that means moving into competing with conventional meat products in scale,” said Eric Schulze, vice president of product and regulation at Upside Foods, a cultivated meat company, as the industry calls itself. The goal is to be selling its meat on the US market within the year.

 

The traditional meat and poultry industry reacted strongly to President Joe Biden’s executive order last month on biotechnology and biomanufacturing, which observers say could push federal agencies to allow commercial sales of meat grown from an animal’s cells.

 

“It’s a slap in the face to cow-calf producers and farmers across the land,” said Don Schiefelbein, president of the trade group National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

 

The world’s first commercially available lab-grown chicken nuggets were sold just two years ago in Singapore. That’s still the only country where meat grown artificially from animal cells is eaten. But startups and a few established food companies in the US say they have products ready to go; companies in Israel are close to bringing theirs to market; and China signaled it could allow lab-grown meat sales within the next five years.

 

Lab-grown meat producers say their food can limit carbon emissions and agricultural runoff endemic to the livestock industry, virtually eliminate animal slaughter—and create meat that is genetically identical to food Americans are used to eating from cows, chickens, pigs, and fish.

 

But farmers and ranchers question whether the food should even be classified as meat.

 

The US Cattlemen’s Association wants terms like “meat” and “beef” reserved for food from slaughtered animals, and submitted a petition to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the agency’s enforcement arm, to ban the terms in lab-grown products. While it was denied, the agency is still deciding what this slaughterless meat can be called.

 

The lab-grown meat industry largely agrees their products should be labeled differently from traditional meat, contending that customers will want to choose their meat for the climate benefits and novelty. For many in the business, the preferred term is “cultivated” meat, which they see as as transparent but not unappetizing.

 

“It should be differentiated somehow, some way, so that the consumer can know whether they’re consuming something that was grown on a farm or ranch—or something that was grown in a petri dish,” said Lia Biondo, an associate at Western Skies Strategies, a public relations and lobbying firm that works with the US Cattlemen’s Association and other agriculture groups.

 

The process for growing cultivated meat varies by company and the type of meat, but the steps are similar: collect an animal’s cell samples, place them in a bioreactor, feed the cells, and harvest them after they multiply into meat.

 

Starter cells can be sourced from a living animal using a biopsy, and “banked” to eventually start multiple growth processes. Each bioreactor needs starter cells, so companies tend to keep a bank of cell lines on hand to draw from as needed.

 

The cells are fed nutrients including vitamins and amino acids. They then multiply, and ultimately grow into the animal muscles and tissues consumers know as meat.

 

While most of the hundred or so companies getting into the business in the US are startups, JBS SA, the world’s largest meat producer, is investing $100 million in cultivated meat. It has acquired cultivated meat startup Biotech Foods, and has a research and development center for cultivated protein in Brazil, and a pilot facility in Spain.

 

The US doesn’t yet allow selling meat that isn’t cut from a once-living animal, but in 2018 the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department agreed to share regulation of the eventual market. What that looks like in reality is still unclear.

 

The Agriculture Department last year issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on the labeling of cultivated meat and poultry products, and granted $10 million to create a center for excellence in cellular agriculture at Tufts University.

 

An FDA spokesperson said the agency and USDA will “continue to work in collaboration to develop more detailed procedures to facilitate coordination of our shared regulatory oversight, including developing coordinated labeling principles for livestock/poultry and seafood products made from cultured animal cells. We cannot speculate about the timing of market entry.”

 

Once the food is legal for sale, the FDA will regulate the collection of animal cells, while the Agriculture Department will oversee packaging and processing of the final meat products.

 

A Dutch pharmacologist premiered the first lab-grown burger patty in 2013—at a cost of more than $300,000. Startups are now fine-tuning lab-grown meatballs, sausages, steaks, fish—and even foie gras —which they say will eventually be price competitive with farm-raised meat.

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[Delirious]

How about regulate the dairy and meat industry first?

[Nip Tuck]

I honestly don’t see why this would be a bad thing. Slowly phasing out animal agriculture should be the ultimate goal. Unless this is more harmful to the environment then idk

[magazine]

I mean, I would hope so 

Like, were they thinking of not doing it? 

[Luner45]

I've been interested in lab-grown meat for so long. Ever since I did a Chemistry project on it back in 2015.

 

Of course those who profit directly off of animal slaughter while ignoring the carbon emissions farming produces will be angry at this. And on the opposite spectrum of that, vegans will lose a talking point once everyone is able to consume their meat and eat it too without a life being lost. 

[Archetype]

This is good, right?  Wasn’t the lack of regulation what kept lab-grown meat from being used and sold commercially?  This is major.  More and more companies will work on this to the point that it one day will become cheaper to produce lab grown meat than farm-grown, or at least affordable enough to become a viable replacement at many restaurants and grocery stores.

[Miss Show Business]

3 hours ago, Delirious said:

How about regulate the dairy and meat industry first?

It's already regulated under the FDA... How well it's regulated is another story.

[Delirious]

7 minutes ago, Miss Show Business said:

It's already regulated under the FDA... How well it's regulated is another story.

yea im talkin about how well it's regulated ofc

[JustHoran]

This is good, I think. I would love to be able to enjoy meat without an innocent animal being slaughtered. I've tried to go Vegan so many times and just failed  But I have cut down on meat lately.

[MonsterJohn]

yeah please, those fake meat doesn't do it for me, sorta like dildo vs real dicks

[Gui Blackout]

Just ******* eat meat, my god

[slik]

Sounds great, if we can get to the point of producing meat with less slaughter that's a win 

[Specter]

I am so onboard with lab grown meat it is not funny. 

 

We need to curtail the meat industry like yesterday. 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Phantom