USDA and FDA announce they will jointly oversee production of cell-cultured food products

No chickens were harmed in the making of this product.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration have announced that they will jointly oversee the production of cell-cultured food products derived from livestock and poultry and have announced a joint regulatory framework wherein FDA will oversee cell collection, cell banks, and cell growth and differentiation. During the cell-harvest stage, the FDA will hand on to USDA, which will then oversee the production and labelling of food products derived from the cells of livestock and poultry. 

In a statement, the FDS comments, “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. USDA and FDA are confident that this regulatory framework can be successfully implemented and assure the safety of these products. Because our agencies have the statutory authority necessary to appropriately regulate cell-cultured food products derived from livestock and poultry the Administration does not believe that legislation on this topic is necessary.”

In October, the US Department of Agriculture and the US Food and Drug Administration held a public meeting to discuss the use of livestock and poultry cell lines to develop cell-cultured food products. The FSDA has now announced that the public comment period will be extended to remain open until 26 December, 2018.