The FDA announced today that they were withdrawing the “Food Standards; General Principles and Food Standards Modernization” rule, proposed in 2005 and were aiming to make FDA definitions and standards of identity for foods consistent with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and the standards used by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to inspect meat and poultry products.

Replacing animal-origin cell culture reagents, such as fetal bovine serum (FBS), will support sustainability and cruelty-free claims for cultured meat. It is also an important step towards risk reduction and assuring food safety. The SFA continues to take a leadership position among the world’s regulatory agencies ensuring that these sustainable new products are also safe.

The US Congress has passed the first update since 1938 to the federal law regulating personal care products. The FDA will now have some of the same oversight powers for cosmetics that it has for other product categories, and requirements for animal testing on cosmetic products are removed.

In a landmark decision, the EU Court of Justice ruled that 2017 decisions on carcinogenicity for TiO2  did not rely on valid evidence. The animal studies used were not relevant to humans and they failed to show an intrinsic cause of cancer. The court decision has implications for the EU ban of TiO2 in food.

First Cultured Meat Product Successfully Reviewed by FDA for Safety, a milestone for cell-based cultured meat products