On November 16, the Italian Chamber of Deputies voted to pass a law that would ban the sale of cultivated meat in the country.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has updated its sampling program for cell-cultured meat and poultry products, providing new instructions to inspection personnel and enforcement officers.

Cultivated meat (i.e., cell-cultured meat) has been promoted as an alternative to the livestock industry as a more sustainable, safer, and healthier means of food production. However, several regulatory and safety hurdles must be addressed for cultivated meat to reach the commercial market, as it has not yet been declared safe for consumption in the U.S. Safety considerations for cell-cultured meat include the components utilized (the raw ingredients, the source of cells, scaffolds, and bioreactors), the introduction of adventitious agents, and the presence of drug/chemical residues in the final food product.