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Cell-cultured meat in the spotlight at D.C. meeting

A Texas A&M meat scientist says one of the big concerns with lab-produced, cell-cultured meat is the potential for contamination during the production process.

Dr. Rhonda Miller expressed her reservations at a USDA/FDA-sponsored meeting on cell-cultured meat.

“Anybody who has worked with cell tissue culture knows that, even in a very sterile environment, the cross-contamination issues can be very problematic,” Miller said. “And as we upscale the technology, I think there’s a lot of things we still don’t know about how to control some of those.”

But Isha Datar with New Harvest, a proponent of cell-cultured meat, said traditional meat production has its own set of hazards.

“Things like viral epidemics and antibiotic resistance, which do not generally come into the discussion of regulation, but I think should be factored into understanding how important it is to advance these new technologies,” Datar said.

Another speaker, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president-elect Jennifer Houston, said it is “imperative” that USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service have primary jurisdiction over cell-cultured products. Houston said beef producers “are more than willing to compete on a fair, level playing field.”