USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has responded to petition sponsors with differing opinions about how lab-grown “meat” and “beef” should be labeled.
The FSIS Office of Policy and Program Development has denied the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association’s petition asking the agency to “limit the definition of “meat” and “beef” to products derived from animals “born, raised, and harvested in the traditional manner.”
“This action would, as the petition notes, effectively prohibit the labels of products made using animal cell culture technology (hereafter, cultured products) or derived from non-animal sources, such as plant-based products, from displaying the term “meat” or “beef.”
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Harvard Animal Law requested that FSIS adopt a labeling approach for”cell-based” meat and poultry products. “Specifically, it requests that FSIS establish a labeling approach for cell-based products that do not require new standards of identity,” it said. “And does not ban the use of common or usual meat and poultry terms or other product terms specified in current codified standards of identity.”
The Harvard petition suggests FSIS wait until it has a better understanding of finished cell-based products. It offers that proposed labels be checked unless they “establish speech restrictions that could raise constitutional questions.”
