‘Lab meat’ clears hurdle in path to US dinner plates
- Animal flesh grown in labs moves closer to American mouths after authorities agreed on how to regulate the products
US authorities on Friday agreed on how to regulate food products cultured from animal cells – paving the way to get so-called lab meat on American plates.
The Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration agreed to share regulation of cell-cultured food products, they said in a joint statement, following a public meeting in October.
While technical details have yet to be confirmed, the FDA would oversee the collection and differentiation of cells – when stem cells develop to specialised cells – while USDA would oversee production and labelling of food products.
“This regulatory framework will leverage both the FDA’s experience regulating cell-culture technology and living biosystems and the USDA’s expertise in regulating livestock and poultry products for human consumption,” the statement said, adding that the agencies see no need for legislation on the matter.
