USDA Updates for Cell-Cultured Meat and Poultry

In June 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) issued new Directives and a Notice regarding the regulation of cell cultured food products derived from cell lines of USDA-amenable species. These newly-released USDA-FSIS documents — Directive 7800.1, Directive 5730.1, and Notice 31-23 — address the inspection, sampling, and responsibilities of establishments producing cell-cultured meat and poultry products also commonly referred to as cultivated meat.

With the publication of these Directives and Notice, we now have much more clarity on how USDA-FSIS plans to execute its regulatory obligations in this space, fresh off the heels of the agency's June 2023 issuance of federal grants of inspection to two U.S. cell-cultured chicken manufacturers and approval of their cell-cultured chicken labeling. USDA's actions also both follow FDA's relatively recent issuances of "no-questions" letters to both companies finding that the companies' products "are as safe as comparable foods produced by other methods." According to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and the FDA's director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, federal agencies are "committed to supporting innovation in the food supply" and working collaboratively with USDA-FSIS in a joint regulatory framework.

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