USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service's new criteria for allowing young chicken slaughter plants to increase their line speeds from 140 birds per minute to 175 bpm are likely to prompt a lawsuit from food safety and worker protection groups.

A meeting scheduled by the Food and Drug Administration next week will offer a window into the debate over who should regulate the fast-growing lab-grown meat industry, which uses animal cells to produce meat grown outside the animals.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association wants the Food and Drug Administration to act without delay on “improperly labeled imitation products.”

A recently released USDA audit of Brazil's ability to produce safe beef calls into question the country's "equivalency" status that allows it access to the U.S. market, according to government, industry and food safety advocates. At a minimum the audit shows that Brazil still has some serious regulatory hurdles to clear before the country can resume shipping its renowned grass-fed beef cuts to the U.S.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2017 - There’s still no end in sight for the U.S. ban on fresh Brazilian beef, but the two countries are making progress to reopening trade, U.S. government and industry officials tell Agri-Pulse.