USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) earlier this summer approved the sale of cell-cultured (“lab-grown”) chicken by two California companies: GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods. The United States joins Singapore as the only countries in which cell-cultured chicken is approved for sale to consumers, albeit on an extremely limited basis. While still in its infancy, there remains more questions and concerns about these products than there are answers. As such, NCC this week posted a new issue brief to our website outlining some of these questions and concerns.
In the brief, NCC raised several issues and questions about cell-cultured products pertaining to: labeling and terminology; energy and environmental impact; scalability; cost and affordability; loss of jobs in rural America; nutrition and health.
“Although in its infant stages, it is imperative that cell-cultured products like these be properly regulated, inspected and labeled by both USDA and FDA,” said NCC President Mike Brown. “We support consumer choice, and we can meet any competing protein on a level playing field. Americans are set to eat a record amount of chicken this year, and we don’t see that demand waning. I think most Americans want their chicken raised on a farm, not grown in a lab.”
You can find the issue brief on the NCC website here.
