USDA, FDA Would Report Plan to Regulate Cell-Based Meat This Spring

Lawmakers are looking to set a tight deadline for FDA and USDA to hash out a formal strategy for joint regulation of cell-cultured meats, a move likely driven by an anxious meat industry eager to hand USDA the lead. Under a provision attached to the bipartisan spending bill compromise that House and Senate appropriators released late Wednesday (Feb. 14), the two agencies could be looking at a mid-April deadline for outlining a formal plan for regulating cell-cultured meat. The language, which appears in an explanatory statement attached to the compromise funding bill (H.J. Res.31), would give the two agencies 60 days after the bill is enacted to develop a formal agreement “delineating the responsibilities of the two agencies for the regulation of cell-cultured food products derived from livestock and poultry.” “Such agreement shall be made public on the USDA and FDA websites within one day of the completion of the agreement,” the language states. The latest compromise language signals that lawmakers intend to ensure that the two agencies do not linger in their commitment to quickly hash out the details on their joint plan for regulating cell-based meat. “This language was driven by those in Congress who supported USDA having sole authority over these products,” said Brian Ronholm, a former USDA deputy undersecretary for food safety, who is now senior director for regulatory policy at Arent Fox. “They are eager to see how a detailed formal agreement will protect USDA jurisdiction, and the deadline is included to ensure that discussions between the two agencies do not languish.”