News from CRIS: Cultivated Meat & Seafood - Regulations

October 18, 2021

What is cultivated meat and seafood? 

Cultivated meat and seafood is meat and seafood grown outside of the animal from specific animal cells in a bioreactor. 
 
You can learn more about the cultivation process from our previous blog

Do federal agencies recognize cultivated meat and seafood as "real" meat and seafood? 

Yes, United States (U.S.) regulatory agencies acknowledge that cultivated meat and seafood contain cells and nutrients recognized as meat and seafood products under current definitions. Meaning, cultivated meat and seafood will be regulated under the framework already in place. 

Who will be regulating cultivated meat and seafood in the United States?

In the U.S., the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) will jointly regulate cultivated meat and seafood.
 
The current structure of these departments means each agency will take on specific animal species undergoing cultivation, certain phases of the cultivation, harvesting, and packaging processes, and will consider if animals or humans will be consuming the resulting cultivated meat and seafood (1).

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To continue reading the entire blog post, visit: https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/cultivated-meat-seafood-regulations