Food Safety

An industry lawyer said a Missouri law enacted this week to limit the use of the word “meat” on food sold in the state to traditional animal products ramps up the regulatory uncertainty facing cell-based meat producers, who are working to develop foods resembling meat, poultry and seafood that are produced using small amounts of cells from the animal the food product is supposed to resemble.

The Senate soundly rejected an amendment proposed by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) to the minibus appropriations bill on Wednesday (Aug. 1) that aimed to protect those marketing products using common compound names that identify an alternative plant or animal source, such as almond milk, goat cheese or gluten-free bread, Lee said when he described the measure.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said his agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are still working out how the federal bodies will regulate 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 -- but he reaffirmed that FDA will definitely play a key role in overseeing the budding industry.

FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said his agency will soon open a docket to receive public comment on whether non-dairy products can be marketed as milk, stepping into a heated debate between the dairy industry and those marketing non-dairy milk.

FDA and the United States Department of Agriculture are in dispute over which agency should regulate 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 announced it will hold a public meeting on July 26 to discuss the multi-year Nutrition Innovation Strategy which agency head Scott Gottlieb first introduced in March.

The White House on Thursday (June 21) called for shifting FDA's food safety role to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which would run a new single Federal Food Safety Agency.

FDA will hold a public meeting July 12 to gather stakeholders' input on how the agency should regulate 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, a development already protested by the cattlemen’s association as usurping USDA's authority over what the group calls “fake meat.”

A Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday (May 22) voted unanimously to send to the full committee a fiscal 2019 FDA funding bill that appears to give the agency $163 million more than its current level but still less than requested by the administration, coming after House appropriators also agreed to hike FDA spending.