Food Safety

After months of heated stakeholder debate over whether FDA or the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) should regulate cell-based meat, the two agencies announced Monday (Sept. 10) that they will host a two-day joint public meeting to discuss oversight of the nascent industry, with a focus on the potential hazards, regulatory issues and labeling of the emerging technology.

In a letter to President Donald Trump, leading representatives of the cell-based and traditional meat industries came to a compromise over a proposed regulatory framework for cell-based meat, which are foods resembling meat, poultry and seafood that are produced using small amounts of cells from the animal that the food product is supposed to resemble.

FDA will reevaluate standards of identity (SOI) for certain foods -- including a look a potential health issues posed by non-dairy milk and cheese products -- as 300 of the current standards are outdated and in need of an updated framework, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement Thursday (July 26).

As FDA looks to take on regulation of cultured meat, three leading consumer advocacy groups are urging the agency to pursue a new oversight strategy that is more stringent than the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) approach currently used for new food ingredients.

FDA defended its role in regulating cultured meats -- foods resembling meat, poultry and seafood that are produced using small amounts of cells from the animal that the food product is supposed to resemble -- during a public meeting held Thursday (July 12).

Meat industry organizations disagree on how to define foods resembling meat, and beef in particular, produced using small amounts of cells from the animal that the food product is supposed to resemble count as meat, but they agree FDA has no business getting involved.

FDA offers a flexible approach in its first draft guidance aimed at helping the food industry reduce the risk of intentional adulteration (IA) -- where food systems are deliberately damaged to cause widespread harm to the public health -- occurring at their facilities.

Facing pressure from appropriators, lawmakers and stakeholders, FDA signaled Tuesday (June 19) it is rethinking its controversial move to require pure maple syrup and pure honey be labeled as having “added sugar.”

After FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this week they will harmonize their audits of produce facilities, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told Inside Health Policy the two agencies will succeed this time around, when they failed previously, in their broader effort to eliminate inefficiencies stemming from dual-regulation of food facilities.