The National Chicken Council (NCC) on December 26 submitted comments to USDA’S Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) emphasizing the importance of coordinating regulatory efforts between FDA and FSIS to leverage each agency’s knowledge and expertise on the subject of cell-cultured meat products.
“While FSIS has the statutory authority, relevant experience, and robust regulatory frameworks to regulate the labeling and safety of these products, FDA also may have appropriate expertise to fill a role within a comprehensive regulatory framework,” NCC wrote. “We recognize that FDA has long played a role in ensuring that ingredients used in meat and poultry products are safe for use in food through FDA’s authority over food additive safety.
“Additionally, NCC recognizes that FDA has experience with similar food production technologies, such as microbial, algal, and fungal cells generated by large-scale culture and used as direct food ingredients. This may lend itself to FDA addressing the technical safety of the cell-culturing technology used to create cell-cultured meat products and to determine whether the results of this technology are or are not approved food additives. It may be appropriate that shared regulatory jurisdiction draw on both FDA’s and FSIS’s respective expertise.”
The full comments can be read by clicking here.
