Slaughter-free chicken approved by FDA
FDA Completes First Pre-Market Consultation for Human Food Made Using Animal Cell Culture Technology
Before Entering the U.S. Market, the Food Must Meet Other Federal Requirements
Constituent Update
November 16, 2022
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) completed its first pre-market consultation for a human food made from cultured animal cells. We evaluated the information UPSIDE Foods submitted to the agency and have no further questions at this time about the firm’s safety conclusion. The firm will use animal cell culture technology to take living cells from chickens and grow the cells in a controlled environment to make the cultured animal cell food.
The FDA’s pre-market consultation with the firm included an evaluation of the firm’s production process and the cultured cell material made by the production process, including the establishment of cell lines and cell banks, manufacturing controls, and all components and inputs. The voluntary pre-market consultation is not an approval process. Instead, it means that after our careful evaluation of the data and information shared by the firm, we have no further questions at this time about the firm’s safety conclusion.
The FDA is committed to sharing information about our oversight of human food made from cultured animal cells and today released:
- The FDA’s response letter to the firm
- The FDA’s scientific memo that describes our evaluation of the data and information provided by the firm
- The firm’s own assessment that their food is safe
In addition to meeting the FDA’s requirements, including facility registration for the cell culture portion of the process, the firm will need a grant of inspection from the United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) for the manufacturing establishment. Additionally, the food itself requires a mark of inspection from USDA-FSIS before it can enter the U.S. market. As this product comes closer to entering the U.S. market, we are closely coordinating with USDA-FSIS to ensure it is properly regulated and labeled.
The FDA is ready to work with additional firms developing cultured animal cell food and production processes to ensure their food is safe and lawful under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. We encourage firms to have these conversations with us often and early in their product and process development phase, well ahead of making any submission to us. We are already engaged in discussions with multiple firms about various types of food made from cultured animal cells, including food made from seafood cells that will be overseen solely by the FDA. Our goal is to support innovation in food technologies while always maintaining as our priority the production of safe food. Human food made with cultured animal cells must meet the same stringent requirements, including safety requirements, as all other food.
For More Information:
- Human Food Made with Cultured Animal Cells
- Press Release: FDA Spurs Innovation for Human Food from Animal Cell Culture Technology
UPSIDE FOODS: https://upsidefoods.com/faqs/
Where do you obtain your cells?
We’re exploring obtaining cells from a variety of methods, including biopsies from living animals, eggs, fishing, and recently slaughtered animals who were already a part of the food system. Our first commercial products will be produced using cells from fertilized chicken eggs.
What do you feed your cells?
UPSIDE Foods has developed a proprietary cell-culture medium, or cell feed, consisting of common compounds found in animal feed and human food, including amino acids, fatty acids, sugars, trace elements, salts, and vitamins. These ingredients allow us to nourish the cells with the same type of nutrients they would get inside an animal’s body. The main difference between feeding a live animal versus feeding our cells is the size of the components. (For instance, whereas a live chicken is fed corn, which is made up of carbohydrates and protein, we feed our cells the carbohydrates and proteins directly.)
What does it mean that UPSIDE meat aims to be slaughter free?
UPSIDE Foods is growing meat directly from animal cells without the need to raise and slaughter billions of animals. We have already developed processes that do not require FBS, and we are working to phase out the use of all animal components altogether. We aim to bring animal component-free products to market as soon as possible.
*What is the purpose of FBS?
*Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is a universal growth supplement of cell and tissue culture media. FBS is a natural cocktail of most of the factors required for cell attachment, growth, and proliferation, effective for most types of human and animal (including insect) cells.
AFC GLOBAL COMMENT: Animal cell meat is NOT ANIMAL-FREE nor does it eliminate enslavement, torture and eventual slaughter, which also means it’s not slaughter-free.
It is a step, however, away from massive factory farming. The problem with the ‘step’ is that most likely the world will stay on that step, forever dependent on other animals for consumption that is not necessary.
The cruelty remains.
AFC Global Plants™ new site. 