The North American Meat Institute and the Alliance for Meat, Poultry and Seafood Innovation (AMPS Innovation), an industry coalition representing the makers of cell-based/cultured meat, poultry and seafood sent a joint letter to the US Department of Agriculture, calling on the agency to support mandatory labelling of cell-based/cultured meat and poultry products and to solicit input on what that labelling should look like through an Advance Notice of Public Rulemaking.

Full text of the letter can be accessed here.

Under a joint framework for regulation of cell-based/cultured meat, poultry and seafood products, which was agreed to by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in March 2019, the two agencies will work together to ensure the safety and labelling of cell-based/cultured meat and poultry products. Among other provisions of the framework, FSIS will have oversight of the labelling of cell-based/cultured meat and poultry, as it does for all meat and poultry sold in the United States, while the FDA will oversee the labelling of cell-based/cultured seafood, as it does for most seafood sold in the United States.

In a recent public presentation, the agencies committed to joint principles for product labelling and labelling claims. The letter does not address seafood specifically, but it was shared with the FDA to support the continued collaboration between the two agencies’ responsibilities and processes. Separately, on 6 October 2020, the FDA issued a Request for Information (RFI) regarding the labelling of cell-based/cultured seafood products.