
Animal testing and new proteins: Time for FDA to move into the 21st century
Bruce FriedrichFood innovation is entering a new era. FDA approval should too.
Food innovation is entering a new era. FDA approval should too.
Earlier this year, the Missouri governor signed an omnibus bill that contained language prohibiting "misrepresenting" any product as "meat" that does not come from a slaughtered animal. We just went to court to stop it.
The Good Food Institute supports a clear and efficient pathway to market for clean meat. Regulators have an important role to play in encouraging innovation and ensuring consumer safety and confidence. The Good Food Institute and the companies in this space stand ready to work with whichever regulatory agency ultimately regulates clean meat.
GFI's new poll shows the courts are right - consumers buying soymilk and almond milk are not confused. They know what they are buying.
GFI's Director of Policy Jessica Almy, Esq. submitted a letter to the FDA commissioner, in which she references GFI's 2017 Petition to Recognize the Use of Well-Established Common and Usual Compound Nomenclatures for Food.
Consumers Union included inaccurate information, employed blatant push polling tactics, and misled consumers, the media, and the FDA with a recent poll about what to label meat grown outside of an animal.
GFI attended the FDA's public meeting on foods produced using animal cell culture technology on July 12th. Speakers presented a strong case for the FDA's ability to regulate clean meat. Policy Director Jessica Almy gave remarks during the public comment section.
On Wednesday, June 27, GFI's Director of Policy Jessica Almy, Esq. was part of a panel of clean meat experts who presented to the Advisory Committee for the Congressional Research and Development [R&D] Caucus Committee. She explained that we are on the cusp of a major shift in how meat is produced globally. If the United States is to lead in this new way of producing meat, the government needs to shift research dollars to this field.
Given the range and severity of issues caused by industrial animal agriculture (from antibiotic-resistant superbugs to increased impacts of climate change), every government should follow Japan's lead and invest in clean meat research.
Some incumbents are so threatened by plant-based and clean meat that they want the government to protect them. GFI makes the case for protecting the First Amendment rights of innovative plant-based and clean meat companies.