USDA/FDA Launches Joint Webinar on Roles and Responsibilities for Cultured Animal Cell Human and Animal Food Products

enter for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Constituent Update

USDA/FDA Launches Joint Webinar on Roles and Responsibilities for Cultured Animal Cell Human and Animal Food Products Constituent Update July 31, 2020 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) are announcing the launch of a joint webinar to discuss their roles and responsibilities for cultured animal cell food and feed products. During the webinar, experts will provide information on FDA and USDA’s respective statutory authorities, roles and responsibilities for cultured animal cell human and animal food products, and regulatory points of contact for new food production technology. Interested stakeholders must register to view the webinar; the webinar will be available immediately after registration is completed.   The FDA’s role, along with the USDA-FSIS, is to ensure that regulatory oversight is in place so that when food developers bring these new products to market in the future, the products - none of which are currently on the market – are safe and properly labeled. In 2019, the FDA and USDA-FSIS established a formal agreement on how we would use our regulatory tools to help ensure that foods comprising or containing cultured animal cells entering the U.S. market are safe and properly labeled. This agreement laid out which parts of the process each agency will oversee and was the first step toward developing the framework to support safe production of these foods and providing clarity to industry on the requirements for producing, distributing, and selling these foods in the U.S. The FDA and USDA-FSIS have held public meetings to better understand the science of animal cell culture technology, potential hazards, labeling considerations, and to listen to consumer concerns.  The FDA and USDA-FSIS continue their open communication and engagement with stakeholders to foster innovation while ensuring the safety of our nation’s food supply. Registration Information Participants can access the webinar immediately after completing registration. For more information, please visit FDA’s Foods Made with Cultured Animal Cells webpage.