How should cell-based meat be labeled?: What 1,179 comments to USDA say about stakeholders’ priorities
A survey conducted by the industry group Good Food Institute last fall showed 75% of companies making cell-based meat wanted the products referred to as 'cultivated meat'.
MEGAN POINSKI: As companies making meat from cells raise money, create prototypes and improve their technology, they are getting closer to having products to make available. And that leaves a question hanging in the air: What can those products be called?
The USDA — which formally agreed in 2019 to jointly regulate products in the cell-based space with the FDA — put out a formal request for input in September. The department asked a battery of questions about how these products should be described on packaging labels, especially compared to animal derived products. Which terms work best for this type of product? Which terms would be misleading?
The comment period was open for two months. And in that time, 1,179 comments came in. Eighty-seven of them came from companies, trade groups, policy groups and international entities. State agriculture departments, companies involved with cell-based meat, traditional meat producers and an array of groups connected to the food industry commented. A total of 157 individuals left comments anonymously. One U.S. senator made his opinion known.
And while the comments offered a wide variety of viewpoints on cell-based meat, one sentiment was nearly universally shared: These new products represent something new and different, and they deserve regulators’ attention and specific labeling.
Food Dive accessed, read and analyzed all of the comments that came in from companies, interest and industry groups, state and foreign government agencies and officials, and prominent individuals. All of these comments, complete with analysis on their preferred labeling terminology, can be explored in this tracker.
The feelings about these products as reflected by the comments ran the gamut. While some were extremely supportive of the innovation cell-based meat represents, some were defensive about the threat the sector may pose to traditional animal agriculture.
Cell-based meat proponents are building an entire industry on the promise of removing the need to raise and kill animals from the food equation, and in doing so, avoid the livestock industry’s inherent environmental and ethical issues…
Commenters who defended traditional agriculture tended to agree with the policy passed by the American Farm Bureau Federation: Terminology customarily associated with meat from a slaughtered animal should not be used for cell-based equivalents. How far the labeling should diverge varied among the commenters…
The Good Food Institute, an advocacy group for alternative proteins, argued that cell cultivation is a new way of creating products that have existed throughout human history, so new standards of identity are not needed to differentiate cell-based meat. After all, the group wrote, new standards of identity were not required for meat made through cloning. The companies growing meat from cells will want to voluntarily differentiate themselves through labeling, the group wrote.
At this point in time, GFI wrote, regulators should take it slow in creating labeling regimes for cell-based meat products, and instead emphasized the need for flexibility as consumers develop an understanding of cultivated meat.
“Historically, labeling requirements have not created consumer expectations; rather, they have codified existing ones to ensure consumers continue to receive the products they have come to expect,” the group commented. “Consumer expectations regarding cultivated meat and poultry products have not yet solidified and cannot be accurately measured at this time, so there is nothing to codify”…
Upside Foods echoed research done by GFI on the basic tenets of what to call these products. A survey conducted by the industry group last fall showed 75% of companies making cell-based meat wanted the products referred to as “cultivated meat.” In its comments, the company also discussed consumer research it had done into labeling terms…
One of the platform issues for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals urges consumers to adopt a vegan diet and end industrial-scale farming. At the moment, it’s unclear whether vegetarians and vegans will accept cell-cultured meat as something they can eat, but PETA’s comments try to further its viewpoint in terms of animal-based product labeling. The group gives its suggestions for labeling of cell-based meat, but what it really wants is specific labeling on traditionally farmed products.
“The most straightforward approach to ensure that consumers are able to make informed choices is to always disclose the presence of ‘slaughtered meat’ in food products,” the group’s comments state. “This language is clear, concise and does not rely on understanding of animal cell culture technology”…
Now that these comments are being evaluated, Kulkarni said that USDA and FDA will work together to decide on labeling terms. A spokesperson from USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, which handles cultivated meat regulation, said they do not have a timeframe on when their work will be completed, but there are no plans for additional public meetings.
USDA has indicated that it will not necessarily wait for these rules to come out in order to approve products for sale, Kulkarni said. Wholesale determinations that products are safe for consumption may come first. SOURCE…
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