Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that they will hold a joint meeting on October 23-24, 2018, to discuss the use of cell culture technology to develop products derived from livestock and poultry. As we previously reported on this blog, FDA held a public meeting on the safety of food produced using animal cell cultures a few months ago in July. However, as we noted then, there has been some debate as to whether FDA or USDA should have jurisdiction over cultured meat.

The jointly sponsored October meeting will cover the potential hazards that need to be controlled for the safe production of animal cell cultured food products and oversight considerations by regulatory agencies on the first day. The second day of the meeting will focus on labeling considerations.

Representatives from industry, consumer groups and other stakeholders are invited to participate in the meeting. Pre-registration is encouraged and can be done through the Meetings and Events page on USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service’s (FSIS) website. The comments that were submitted to FDA in regards to the July 12, 2018 public meeting, in addition to new comments, will be considered.

In a press release about the October meeting, both FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue indicated the need for future cooperation between the two agencies with regards to regulating cultured meat products.

• “Recent advances in animal cell cultured food products present many important and timely technical and regulatory considerations for the FDA and our partners at USDA,” stated FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb in the release.

• “American farmers and ranchers feed the world, but as technology advances, we must consider how to inspect and regulate to ensure food safety, regardless of the production method,” said USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue.