• Senators Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Jon Tester (D-MT) have introduced a bill, the “Food Safety Modernization for Innovative Technologies Act,” that would formalize the agreement between FDA and USDA to jointly regulate cell-based meat products.
  • Consistent with the March 2019 agreement between the two agencies, the bill would give FDA authority to evaluate the technology of producing cell-based meat from livestock or poultry cells, while USDA would oversee the processing, packaging, and labeling of such products.  For products not derived from livestock or poultry cells, FDA would have sole jurisdiction.
  • The bill is the latest effort to propose a formal regulatory system to address cell-based meat and would create definitions for adulteration and misbranding applicable only to food produced using animal cell culture technology.  In the meantime, states continue to introduce bills to limit the ability to market cell-based meat products as “meat,” and the meatless food industry continues to grow.

The next issue of The Daily Intake will publish on January 6, 2020. Keller and Heckman LLP wishes everyone a wonderful holiday season.