Cell-cultivated meat, a lab-grown protein with animal byproducts but no murdered animals, is now the industry standard. In 2013, Dutch scientist Mark Post from Maastricht University in the Netherlands created the first lab-grown beef product for human consumption. Today, over 150 firms worldwide offer cell-cultured beef, including 43 in the United States. However, the product is now prohibited in the Netherlands and Europe, with only the United States, Singapore, and a few other countries permitting cell-cultured beef sales to the public.
The USDA permits fake meat to be labeled as “cell cultured meat” or “cell cultivated meat.” Sandra Eskin, Deputy Undersecretary for Food Safety, said new federal labeling guidelines will be issued shortly, and many states are also developing laws for how lab-grown meats may be tagged and marketed in their territories. Some corporations want to utilize only “cultivated” meat, while others choose “fake meat,” “imitation meat,” “clean meat,” “manufactured meat,” and “cell-based meat.”
The Fair Foods Act, proposed in Congress earlier this year, would require stronger labeling for grown meat. Madeline Cohen, a senior regulatory attorney at The Good Food Institute, feels that the cultured meat sector should be allowed to use common phrases that customers like as long as they are true and not deceptive. Labels should also inform customers about the advantages of cell-cultured meat and how to utilize it. As regulatory agencies explore labeling requirements, she feels it is critical to maintain a fair playing field and prevent the government from selecting winners and losers in the marketplace.
Consumer Reports’ Director of Food Policy, Brian Roholm, feels that labeling should be straightforward. While eliminating the word “cell” may go too far, he is OK with the phrase “cell cultivated meat.” He is concerned, however, that labels may exclude critical manufacturing process information for customers. For example, when cultured cell chicken is formed, chicken cell lines are immersed in a medium containing fetal bovine serum. An anti-clumping substance, previously authorized by the FDA as a stool softener, is added. Some goods may also include components from cattle and pigs.
Despite enormous expenditures in cell-cultured meat, the business is unlikely to compete with conventional agriculture in the next decades. The method of producing lab-grown meat is continually evolving, and even with advancements, no one has worked out how to disseminate produced meat on a significant scale.
