<span style="color: #222222;">US authorities on Friday agreed on how to regulate food products cultured from animal cells – paving the way to get so-called "lab meat" on American plates.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">A joint statement said the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration agreed to share regulation of cell-cultured food products.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">While technical details have yet to be confirmed, the FDA would oversee the collection and differentiation of cells — when stem cells develop to specialized cells — while USDA would oversee production and labeling of food products.  The question of whether to approve cell-cultured food products has never really arisen in the US.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">In fact, several niche "lab-meat" startups already exist, but production costs are very high and nobody has a product that is ready to sell yet.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Californian company Just, known for its eggless mayonnaise, has said previously it plans to sell cell-cultured meat by the end of this year.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Others such as Memphis Meats and Mosa Meat, in the Netherlands, are working to get production costs down — with some backing from the agri-food industry.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The backers of "lab meat" argue avoiding slaughtering animals will reduce both suffering and greenhouse emissions — and is a sustainable option to feed growing populations hungry for protein.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">But they are locked in disagreement with farming organizations about whether such products can indeed be called "meat".</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The authorities have made no statement on that — but the US Cattlemen's Association welcomed the news.</span><br />''