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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday February 27 2018, @01:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-what's-for-dinner dept.

The U.S. Cattlemen's Association has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop an official definition for terms like "meat" and "beef", as plant-based alternatives to meats continue to grow in popularity and lab-grown/cultured meat may be coming soon:

Companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are combining plant-based ingredients and science, rather than animals, to create fake-meat burgers and other products that taste like the real thing.

Now U.S. Cattlemen's Association is looking to draw a line in the sand. The association launched what could be the first salvo in a long battle against plant-based foods. Earlier this month, the association filed a 15-page petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture calling for an official definition for the term "beef," and more broadly, "meat."

"While at this time alternative protein sources are not a direct threat to the beef industry, we do see improper labeling of these products as misleading," said Lia Biondo, the association's policy and outreach director. "Our goal is to head off the problem before it becomes a larger issue."

[...] While these foods are commonly dubbed "fake meat," there's a little more to the meat-substitute market than that. The Good Food Institute, which advocates a sustainable food supply, breaks it down into two categories: clean meat and plant-based meat. Clean meat refers to "meat" grown in a lab from a small amount of animal stem cells. This kind of meat isn't on the market yet, but it's in development. Plant-based meat is anything that mimics traditional meat but is made mainly using plant ingredients.

Here's an idea: define "meat" for the Cattlemen's Association, then tax it with an exemption for "lab-grown meat".

Related: Lab-Grown Pork Closer to Reality
Lab-Grown Chicken (and Duck) Could be on the Menu in 4 Years
Inside the Strange Science of the Fake Meat that 'Bleeds'
Impossible Foods Just Raised $75 Million for Its Plant-based Burgers
Cargill, Bill Gates, Richard Branson Backed Memphis Meats Expects Meat From Cells in Stores by 2021
Meat Tax Proposed for Sake of Human and Environmental Health.


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:57AM (5 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:57AM (#644485) Journal

    Meat that people pick up from the grocery store (cue Phoenix666 rage) has already been treated and packaged in a way that reduces the amount of bacteria on it:

    http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1995-04-19/entertainment/9505090003_1_american-meat-institute-foundation-coli-0157-h7 [chicagotribune.com]

    https://www.fda.gov/food/resourcesforyou/consumers/ucm261680.htm [fda.gov]

    https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/safe-food-handling/packaging-materials/meat-poultry-packaging-materials [usda.gov]

    https://uspackagingandwrapping.com/blog/A-Beginner-s-Guide-to-Meat-Packaging.html [uspackagingandwrapping.com]

    People buy billions of pounds of the stuff. And you know what they do after they buy it? They cook it, further killing bacteria. They do this before they eat it.

    So people are eating cooked meat with very few bacteria on it (unless it has been sitting around at room temperature after being cooked). What should they do next? Eat some dirt to make sure they are training their immune systems?

    Maybe there is an argument to be made that the current way people consume meat has health issues associated with it. But I don't see cultured meat making it any worse.

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 27 2018, @06:37AM (4 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 27 2018, @06:37AM (#644516) Journal

    But I don't see cultured meat making it any worse.

    "Cultured meat" by itself, no.

    A non-trivial proportion of "cultured meat" in the daily diet may make the things worse.
    Look what happened with highly refined foods to date (prevalent obesity [wikipedia.org] and high incidence diabetes) - any reasons to believe adding some other type of "industrialized food" will make the matter better?

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    • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Tuesday February 27 2018, @11:31PM (3 children)

      by Osamabobama (5842) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @11:31PM (#644868)

      Cultured yogurt is recommended for better digestion. There's no reason 'cultured' should mean sterile; it could contain whatever is needed for proper nutrition.

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      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 27 2018, @11:45PM (2 children)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 27 2018, @11:45PM (#644875) Journal

        Playing semantics, are you?
        Wanna bet that "cultured meat" will be sterile?

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        • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Wednesday February 28 2018, @12:17AM (1 child)

          by Osamabobama (5842) on Wednesday February 28 2018, @12:17AM (#644888)

          If it's grown with animal cells, then maybe so. But without a circulatory system and all the other baggage that comes with an animal, the construction methods of those cells is open for re-engineering. Maybe the question is settled, but I could imagine a number of processes that rely on bacteria.

          But more to the point, I will concede that there won't be any known pathogens in the mix.

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          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Wednesday February 28 2018, @02:06AM

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 28 2018, @02:06AM (#644928) Journal

            Maybe the question is settled, but I could imagine a number of processes that rely on bacteria.

            High growth rate (to be economically efficient and drive the price down) means pretty aggressive biological activity.
            High biological activity is correlated with a high spoilage rate.
            To stop spoilage:
            1. grow the product to the point of highest appropriateness for human consumption - where the energy/nutritional value is maximum - then...
            2. sterilize it - if it's fit for human consumption, the microbes (whatever they are: bacteria, molds, fungi, yeasts, etc) will love it too.

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