With the holidays upon us, baking goodies to share with family and friends is a popular pastime for many people.
From cakes and bread to pies, cinnamon rolls and cookies, the holidays are filled with delicious treats. Your Abilene Public Library is joining in on all the baking fun this holiday season by baking cookies.
At the Dec. 13 meeting of APL’s Cookbook Club, we will have a cookie exchange. Part of the event will be sharing appetizers that we have made using recipes from library cookbooks or the library food databases, AtoZ Food America and AtoZ World Food. This will be the dinner portion of the night.
The second part will be sharing our homemade cookies with each other.
The cookie recipes can come from the databases – cookbooks at the library, a favorite cookbook at home, the internet, or a treasured family cookie recipe. Attendees will need to bring two dozen cookies to share with the others. If you are in search of a new cookie recipe, the library has a wide variety of cookbooks that could inspire you and your baking aspirations.
With just a quick look at the cookie cookbooks in our collection you can find “Martha Stewart’s Cookie Perfection: 100+ Recipes to Take Your Sweet Treats to the Next Level” from the kitchens of Martha Stewart Living, “The Perfect Cookie: Your Ultimate Guide to Foolproof Cookies, Brownies & Bars” by the editors at America’s Test Kitchen and “Crazy About Cookies: 300 scrumptious Recipes for Every Occasion & Craving” by Krystina Castella.
If you want to learn more, you can take the class How to Bake Cookies available through the library’s Universal Class portal on the library website. You can also take classes on cake decorating, bread baking and pie making. There are so many ways you can upgrade your holiday baking skills this year.
If you are interested in joining the Cookbook Club for this event, or future ones, you will need to register on the library’s event calendar. The group meets at 6:30 p.m. the second Tuesday of the month at the Mockingbird Lane branch. The group is open to adults 18+ only.
Each month, there is a different theme that attendees use to direct their cooking. This is a great way to try new recipes, grow your cooking or baking skills, and make new friends. Registration is required for all attendees.
If this sounds fun to you, please register and join us for a wonderful night and delicious food and festive cookies. All this, and more, is happening at your library this exciting holiday season.
If it’s your year to host Thanksgiving dinner, there’s a lot to prep and cook—the turkey, the million different casseroles and sides, desserts—it all can be overwhelming. From the ultimate roasting pan to a state-of-the-art potato ricer, the nine picks below will make your life a little easier on Thanksgiving.
(For more tools to step up your cooking game, check out Mansion Global Boutique’s Kitchen section.)
Credit: Kitchenaid
Prep work can take forever, whether you’re chopping veggies for stuffing or making homemade whipped cream for pumpkin pie. Kitchenaid’s 5 Cup Food Chopper ($69.99) is a powerhouse of a gadget that makes chopping, blending, whipping and pureeing less of a hassle.
Credit: Le Creuset
Le Creuset’s Stainless Steel Roasting Pan ($138) encourages a beautifully roasted and golden brown bird that’ll impress your guests. The dishwasher-safe and durable roaster comes with a nonstick rack for even cooking that fits up to a 14-pound turkey.
Credit: Caraway
A roasting pan won’t be the only piece of cookware you’ll need to create a praise-worthy Thanksgiving meal. Caraway ditches the chemicals for its Cookware Set ($595) so you can feel good about the tools you’re cooking with. It comes with a fry pan, sauce pan, sauté pan and dutch oven for all your kitchen necessities.
Credit: OXO
Smooth, silky potatoes are a must for any Thanksgiving spread. OXO’s Good Grips Potato Ricer ($28.99) is made to sit on top of bowls or pots for better leverage. Perfect for potatoes, parsnips, or any other root veggie you plan on adding to your holiday menu.
Credit: Great Jones
Ceramic bakeware that’s functional and looks good, Great Jones checks all the boxes. Stoneware Sweeties’ ($65) playful look will add a pop of color and design to your table. The casserole and pie dish duo is perfect for sweet and savory dishes your guests will keep coming back for.
Credit: Inka
Thanksgiving always comes with heaps of leftovers that end up cluttering your fridge and freezer. Inka’s Food Containers ($85) will help organize what’s left of your meal and keep them from leaking with its InvisiSeal technology. The sleek containers come in a set of three to 18 pieces so you can store as little or as many leftovers you might have left.
Credit: Schmidt Brothers Cutlery/Food52
Made with German stainless steel, the Zebra Wood Steak Knives ($119.99) from Schmidt Brothers Cutlery are a sophisticated and practical addition to your table setting. Plus, the set comes in a luxe keepsake wooden box to store them until your next holiday get-together.
Credit: JK Adams/Food52
The versatility of JK Adams’ Reversible Carving Board ($102) creates the perfect surface to carve your show-stopping turkey. One side is flat for ideal carving and the other includes an indent for your roast so it doesn’t slide or tip. Grooves on each side of the maple wood board collect juices for minimal mess.
Credit: Michael Aram
Handcrafted from stainless steel and brass, the Gold Orchid Measuring Cup Set from Michael Aram ($195) will make measuring ingredients easy and elegant. Gold orchid detailing on the stand adds a tasteful look to your kitchen.
Among the many things I’m thankful for is that I have a personal bartender—my husband. I just tell him what I’m in the mood for—a spicy margarita, a fresh daiquiri, or his specialty, a Bloody Mary—and he emerges a few minutes later with a Instagram-worthy cocktail that’s been created just for me.
To challenge his mixology skills, I’m always looking for new inspiration to help expand his repertoire. This Thanksgiving, I reached out to several acclaimed bartenders and spirits professionals around the country for easy cocktail recipes that pair well with Turkey Day (and all the trimmings).
Here’s what we—and by we, I mean he—will be shaking up this year.
Easy Cocktail Recipes for Thanksgiving
NEGRONI SBAGLIATO SPEZIATO
Negroni Sbagliato
Brother Wolf
“The holidays in Italy call to mind many of the same nostalgic flavors we have here in the States. The aromas of baking spices and citrus oils remind me of the warmth of friends and family gathering together at home. At Brother Wolf, our Italian aperitivo bar in Knoxville, we are thrilled at the overdue attention being paid to the classic Negroni Sbagliato (with prosecco). Our take on the Sbagliato infuses the bitter aperitivo with traditional festive notes that perfectly complement the simple, dry, lower proofed, and lightly effervescent cocktail classico. The addition of raisins and cocoa nibs provide a warmth that rounds out the sharpness of the spices. We love this drink thrown into a large wine glass over ice—but it’s also great without the ice in a Champagne flute. Perfect for the holiday season! Also: The recipe can be batched, so far as the first two ingredients are be combined prior to. (I would add the prosecco maybe an hour prior to service.)” —Jessica King, founder of Brother Wolf, Knoxville, Tennessee
Ingredients:
1 oz. spiced Italian red bitter aperitivo**
1 oz. red vermouth
3 oz. prosecco
**Directions for the Spiced Aperitivo
1 bottle Italian red bitter aperitivo (such as Contratto Bitter, Select Aperitivo, or Campari)
2.5 tbsp. raisins
1.5 tbsp. cacao nibs
Peel of one orange
1 cinnamon stick
1 whole clove
**Directions for Spiced Aperitivo: Combine ingredients in a glass container and store for 3-5 days (to taste) before serving. For an instant infusion, combine ingredients in an iSi whipper, charge, relieve pressure, and strain.
Method: Combine vermouth and aperitivo in a wine glass with ice. Top with prosecco and gently stir. Garnish with a cloved orange slice.
JOHNNIE WALKER MIDNIGHT BLACK
Midnight Black
Diageo
“One of my favorite childhood memories growing up in Puerto Rico was drinking afternoon coffee with my grandmother. And she always accompanied it with short bread or ‘Maria’ cookies. The dark roasted sugars were wonderful with the full bodied, almost chocolatey Puerto Rican coffee. We have a long-term love affair with Johnnie Walker Black Label on the island and it makes its way into chilled coconuts and piña coladas alike. Its brown sugar, butterscotch, and vanilla notes work very well with our palates, and the smokiness shines through just enough to bring an interesting flavor without being overpowering. This may be a simple old-fashioned riff but it’s also a subtle nod to a simple little memory.” —Alberto Miranda, bartender at Nobody Told Me, New York City
Ingredients:
1.5 oz. Johnnie Walker Black Label
0.50 oz. coffee liqueur
0.25 oz. demerara or panela syrup
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
2 dashes orange bitters
Method: Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass and stir over ice for 10 seconds. Strain and pour over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with 1 lemon and 1 orange peel.
TURKEY DINNER
Turkey Dinner
Spiribam
“In preparation for dinner, or as a digestive after, I love this cocktail all through the Thanksgiving celebration with its bright and bitter combination of flavors that cut through the traditional heavy fare of a holiday meal. And the best part is, now you finally have a use for all that leftover cranberry sauce!” —Kiowa Bryan, national director of trade and marketing at Spiribam
Ingredients:
1.5 oz. aged rhum agricole (like Rhum Clement Select Barrel) or rye whiskey
0.5 oz. lemon juice
0.5 o.z Cynar
1 large tsp. cranberry sauce
Method: Shake with ice and fine strain over fresh ice into rocks glass. Garnish with cloved spiced orange twist or candied cranberries.
SAGAMORE FIZZ
Sagamore Fizz
Michael Pohuski/Sagamore Spirit
“The Sagamore Fizz blends together the best ingredients of the holiday season, cranberry syrup, rosemary, cinnamon, and Sagamore’s Maryland-style rye whiskey. It’s a simple but impressive cocktail to serve for a crowd. Just mix the rye whiskey, lime juice, and cranberry simple syrup—then offer guests a DIY garnish bar of cranberries, rosemary, and a club soda topper.”—Justin Katz, bar manager at Sagamore Spirit
Ingredients:
1 750 ml. bottle of Sagamore Spirit rye
8.5 oz. lime juice
17 oz. spiced cranberry syrup**
Club soda
**Directions for Spiced Cranberry Syrup: Boil equal parts sugar, water, and cranberries. For every cup of water, add one cinnamon stick and one rosemary sprig. Remove from heat once boiling and let sit overnight, then strain.
Method: Add Sagamore rye, lime juice, and spiced cranberry syrup to dispenser (or punch bowl) and stir. Pour over ice. Top with club soda. Garnish with a rosemary sprig and cranberries.
ILEGAL CHAPULIN COCKTAIL
Ilegal Chapulin
Ilegal Mezcal
“The Chapulin Cocktail is perfect for the holiday season. The flavor profile is refreshing from the mint, the texture is velvety and there is just a hint of smoke from the Ilegal mezcal. I love this drink because it’s easy to make and a departure from the hot cocktails that everybody is used to during the holidays. I first had this drink during quarantine at a bar called The Grasshopper in Long Beach, California, which had this variation of the classic Grasshopper on their to-go menu. Like most people at the time, I was bummed out and didn’t have a lot of interaction with my friends during lockdown. My good friend Omar Rodriguez, who also happened to be the bar manager, knew I needed a drink and invited me to his bar to pick up some cocktails curbside. We didn’t get to sit at the bar like we usually did but at least I got a fist bump and a great cocktail out of it.” —Gilbert Marquez, global brand ambassador at Ilegal Mezcal
Ingredients:
1 oz. Ilegal Mezcal Joven
1 oz. crème de menthe
1 oz. cream
1 oz. crème de cacao
Method: Combine all ingredients into a shaker and shake until chilled. Strain into a stemmed glass and garnish with Mexican chocolate
NEGRONI ‘FALL-GLIATO’
Negroni ‘Fall-gliato’ Punch
Saeed “Hawk” House
“This cocktail is great for Thanksgiving and any get-together because not only do you get all those fragrant fall spices, it’s also a low abv cocktail. Since we are substituting gin for an effervescent prosecco, your guests will be able to have multiple cocktails without the immediate effect. Not to mention, it’s also very easy to prepare. Having a large-format cocktail like this is great because you won’t find yourself behind the bar constantly trying to whip up some cocktails.” —Saeed “Hawk” House, content creator and bar consultant
Ingredients:
1 750 ml. bottle of Spanish-style sweet vermouth (or your preferred sweet vermouth)
1 750 ml. bottle mulled spice Campari**
2 bottles Korbel prosecco
**Directions for Mulled Spice Campari: In a large Mason jar, combine 1 bottle of Campari and 5 tablespoons of mulling spice. Save the Campari bottle. Close Mason jar and shake vigorously. Store in the fridge for 2–3 days. Be sure to shake or agitate each day. After 2–3 days, strain the contents of the mason jar back into the Campari bottle.
Method: Combine all ingredients in punch bowl with 4 large ice cubes. Stir to incorporate ingredients. Then garnish the punch bowl with clove studded orange wheels. When serving, serve over a large cube, express an orange peel over the top, and drop it in.
CIDER SLING
Cider Sling
New York Distilling Company
“Everyone judges duplicate pies whether they admit it or not, but we know the best apple pie is the one you wash down with a Cider Sling. Hang on to this one from the dinner table to the tryptophan-induced couch session.” —Marissa Mazzotta, bar manager at The Shanty, New York
Ingredients:
0.25 oz. Allspice Dram
0.25 oz. cinnamon
0.75 oz. lemon
1.5 oz. Applejack Barrel Finished Ragtime Rye
2 oz. apple cider juice
Seltzer
Angostura bitters
Method: Pour the ingredients back and forth between two cocktail glasses to evenly distribute the flavors (otherwise known as the rolling technique). Top with seltzer and Angostura bitters.
Guy Fieri, the host of TV’s beloved Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, undisputed mayor of Flavortown, and disaster relief devotee has inspired countless flame-shirted Halloween costumes. But the holiday he’s most hyped about every single year is, predictably, Thanksgiving.
Each year, Fieri hosts between 40 and 60 people for his annual Thanksgiving dinner, which means that he’s got some real experience in cooking a fancy holiday meal for a big crowd. Eater sat down to talk with Fieri about memorably terrible Thanksgiving cooking, what home cooks can swap if they’re stymied by the turkey shortage, and randomly, why he loves Rage Against the Machine so much.
Eater: Most of us have screwed up a dish or two at Thanksgiving. Do you have any particularly memorable Thanksgiving fails?
Guy Fieri: The one that’s been really burned into my mind: We cook extra turkey every year so that we can have turkey sandwiches the next day. One year, someone handed the wrong bag to the wrong person, and the turkey ended up being left outside overnight.
The next morning we went outside and saw that the dogs had a buffet. It was turkey everywhere, a turkey massacre. You remember the movie A Christmas Story? The scene where the dogs came in and ate the turkey? It went down in that kind of form. There was a lot of finger pointing as to who left the turkey outside and who put the bag of trash in the refrigerator; people were mad. There were some hurt feelings.
So you maintain that you are not the person who left the turkey outside?
I absolutely, 100 percent, unequivocally was not involved in said disaster. I am the head chef. I’m the cook, the master of ceremonies, and I don’t participate in the cleanup. I’m as far as I can be from the cleanup. It was definitely not me, but it was a bad day.
Considering that you cook for 60 people during the holidays, and have prepared food on a large scale in your disaster relief efforts, what are your tips for folks who might be new to cooking for a crowd?
It’s important to know that recipes don’t always increase by scale. You can’t just take something and multiply it by 10 or whatever. I’d also remind people to practice. That doesn’t mean you make a full-blown Thanksgiving a week before, because you’ll be burned out on the flavors. But go ahead and make stuffing in October. Do mashed potatoes a couple of times before the holidays. Those are your opportunities to realize you don’t have something right; you don’t want to make that mistake on the big day. And maybe you’ll learn a new technique for those mashed potatoes: Maybe you’ll use a ricer and not a mixer so you don’t make potato wall spackle.
There are so many different methods for preparing a turkey. Which do you think is the best?
Usually, in the oven. The dishwasher really gets it wet; it just doesn’t work. [Insert long dad joke laugh break.]
I’m a fan of all of it. I do turkeys on my smoker: Smoked turkey, to me, is heaven. I also love deep-fried turkey, don’t get me wrong — I’m planning to do one this year for the first time in a while. I’ve spatchcocked a turkey and done it on the barbecue, but I think the real key is the brining. I do that ahead of time so it has time to dry out and you get some really nice, crispy skin. I make a compound butter that I put up underneath the skin for more flavor.
For those of us who aren’t able to make everything from scratch on Thanksgiving, what are the most suitable store-bought substitutes?
Definitely not cranberry sauce. You’ve got to make your own cranberry sauce. Same with the stuffing. And your own stock, you can’t use jarred stock. Listen, this is the big day. It’s the big game day for family cooking. Employ everyone in your house and put them to work.
I guess I’d say French’s onions, the crispy fried onions that go on top of the green bean casserole. I like to make my own, but to be honest, buying them is totally okay. King’s Hawaiian Rolls are also a good choice. You could have them on their own, you could keep them around for leftover sandwiches, or maybe even dry them and crumble on top of the green bean casserole. There’s really no need to reinvent the wheel there.
A turkey shortage is looming. What proteins should people consider cooking if they can’t get their hands on a turkey?
Ham is always one of the must-haves on Thanksgiving for me, but I do think that you need some kind of poultry. You could cheat it with some chicken if you had to, but I think lamb is also an excellent option. It would be a good stand-in for the turkey, and it’s special because it’s something that you don’t have very often.
Last question, and it’s totally unrelated to Thanksgiving: How long have you been a Rage Against the Machine fan?
I was living in Los Angeles and running a restaurant down there. One of my young managers was a Rage fan. I love a huge range of music — I love Johnny Cash, I love Tito Puente. But when I heard Rage and Tom Morello’s guitar riffs for the first time, they got to me. I was into the band really early on, starting in maybe 1994. Later, Brad Wilk, who’s the drummer, and I became really close friends. That was a really neat thing to have happen.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
No matter how old you are, or how much junk food you consume, it’s never too late to start undoing the damage caused by a poor diet.
That’s the message from scientists who study how our food choices affect our life spans and our risk of developing diseases. They have found that people can gain sizable health benefits at any age by cutting back on highly processed foods loaded with salt, sugar and other additives and replacing them with more nutritious foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, lentils, seafood and whole grains.
The earlier you start, the better. Following a healthy diet from a young age leads to the greatest gains in life expectancy. But even people who wait until middle age or later to improve their eating habits still can add years to their lives.
The research is empowering for several reasons. It shows that you don’t necessarily have to transform your diet to gain benefits. Even small changes, like adding a handful of nuts to your daily diet as a midday snack and cutting back on processed meats like ham and hot dogs can potentially add years to your life. And it suggests that even if you’re in your 60s or older, making these relatively small changes to your diet could still lead to major benefits.
A healthy food boost at any age
In a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists followed roughly 74,000 people between the ages of 30 and 75 for over two decades. During that time, they analyzed their diets and lifestyle habits and tracked changes in what they ate. The researchers used several scoring systems to assess the quality of their diets, including the Alternate Healthy Eating Index, which was developed by nutrition experts at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The index gives low scores to unhealthy foods and higher scores to healthier foods. Among the foods that received high scores were fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, whole grains and foods rich in unsaturated fats and heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, like fish, avocados and olive oil. Some of the unhealthy foods that received lower scores were things like red and processed meats and foods high in sodium and added sugars, such as sugar-sweetened beverages, pizza, potato chips and other junk foods.
What are ultra-processed foods? What should I eat instead?
The more nutritious foods people ate, and the fewer junk foods they consumed, the higher their diet scores. The researchers found that people who had consistently high diet scores were up to 14 percent less likely to die of any cause during the study period compared to people who had consistently poor diets.
But perhaps most important: People who improved their eating habits saw big benefits. The researchers found that people who increased their diet scores by just 20 percent during the study had at least an 8 percent reduction in mortality during the study period and a 7 to 15 percent drop in their likelihood of dying from heart disease, specifically. Achieving a 20 percent increase in your diet score could be as simple as replacing the sugary drinks in your diet with sparkling water and eating at least one handful of nuts or one serving of beans or lentils daily, said Mercedes Sotos-Pieto, the lead author of the study.
She pointed out that most of the participants in the study were over 60 years old, demonstrating that it’s never too late to benefit from an improvement in your eating habits. The reductions in mortality among people who improved their eating habits largely stemmed from a decreased incidence of cardiovascular disease, which is strongly influenced by diet. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide.
Just add nuts, grains, beans and peas
Sotos-Pieto noted that eating a more nutritious diet by making small and gradual improvements in your food choices over time can help you lose weight and lower your cholesterol levels, blood pressure, blood sugar and inflammation — all of which can improve your cardiovascular health and reduce your likelihood of having a heart attack or stroke.
“It’s not necessary to dramatically change your lifestyle,” said Sotos-Pieto, an assistant professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid and an adjunct professor at Harvard’s School of Public Health. “Choose small goals that you can achieve and sustain over time.”
In another study published earlier this year in PLOS Medicine, scientists analyzed large amounts of data on the impact that different foods have on the risk of premature death. Then they used that data, along with other research on deaths and chronic disease rates, to estimate how changes in a person’s diet might influence their life expectancy at different ages.
The researchers found that a 20-year-old who switched from the typical Western diet to an optimal Mediterranean-style diet (and stuck with it) could add on average 11 to 13 years to his or her life expectancy. But even seniors could benefit: A 60-year-old who made this switch could boost their life expectancy by up to nine years, and an 80-year-old could gain about three-and-a-half years.
The study found that the biggest gains in life expectancy stemmed from eating more legumes such as beans, peas, lentils and peanuts. If overhauling your diet seems like a daunting task, then start small by adding a few particularly important foods to your diet.
Eat a handful of nuts every day
Add a few servings of whole grains to your diet. Switch to brown rice instead of white rice.
Eat at least one cup of beans, lentils or peas daily. Add chickpeas to a salad; eat a burrito bowl with black or pinto beans.
Add nut butters (peanut butter or almond butter) to toast, oatmeal or yogurt for breakfast.
The outsize health benefits you gain from eating more legumes, nuts and whole grains stems from their metabolic profile, said Lars Fadnes, the lead author of the PLOS Medicine study and a professor at the University of Bergen in Norway. These foods are nutrient-dense, containing large amounts of fiber, vitamins and minerals.
Legumes for example are high in protein and they contain several B vitamins, iron, copper, magnesium, manganese, zinc and phosphorous, he said. These foods have also been shown in clinical trials to reduce inflammation and improve cholesterol levels and other metabolic markers that affect your life span.
Fadnes emphasized that if you eat a lot of junk food, the earlier you change your eating habits the better. Even for people who are overweight, older and in poor metabolic health, the benefits you can gain from eating more nutritious foods, he said, “are likely to be substantial.”
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Do you have a question about healthy eating? Email EatingLab@washpost.com and we may answer your question in a future column.
Robert M. Califf, M.D., MACC Commissioner of Food and Drugs – Food and Drug Administration
Susan T. Mayne, Ph.D. Director – Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN)
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The world is experiencing a food revolution and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is committed to supporting innovation in the food supply. As an example of that commitment, today we are announcing that we have completed our first pre-market consultation of a human food made from cultured animal cells.
The agency evaluated the information submitted by UPSIDE Foods as part of a pre-market consultation for their food made from cultured chicken cells and has no further questions at this time about the firm’s safety conclusion.
Before this food can enter the market, the facility in which it is made also needs to meet applicable U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and FDA requirements. In addition to the FDA’s requirements, including facility registration for the cell culture portion, the manufacturing establishment needs a grant of inspection from USDA-Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) for the harvest and post-harvest portions and the product itself requires a USDA mark of inspection.
The regulation of cell culture technology is being done collaboratively and in close partnership with USDA-FSIS for food made from cultured livestock or poultry cells. Under the March 2019 formal agreement, both agencies agreed to a joint regulatory framework wherein the FDA oversees cell collection, cell banks, and cell growth and differentiation. The FDA’s approach to regulating products derived from cultured animal cells involves a thorough pre-market consultation process. While this is not considered an approval process, it concludes when all questions relevant to the consultation are resolved. A transition from the FDA to USDA-FSIS oversight will take place during the cell harvest stage. USDA-FSIS will oversee the post-harvest processing and labeling of human food products derived from the cells of livestock and poultry. This closely coordinated regulatory approach will ensure that cell-cultured products derived from the cell lines of livestock and poultry meet federal regulations and are accurately labeled. Both agencies are working with manufacturers to ensure these products meet all applicable FDA and USDA-FSIS requirements.
Advancements in cell culture technology are enabling food developers to use animal cells obtained from livestock, poultry, and seafood in the production of food, with these products expected to be ready for the U.S. market in the near future. The FDA’s goal is to support innovation in food technologies while always maintaining as our first priority the safety of the foods available to U.S. consumers. The FDA has extensive experience in food safety assessment across a wide range of food production technologies, including the use of biological systems and biotechnology. The agency is evaluating new substances all the time as industry practices evolve to meet consumer demands and preferences. Food made with cultured animal cells must meet the same stringent requirements, including safety requirements, as all other food regulated by the FDA.
The FDA is ready to work with additional firms developing cultured animal cell food and production processes to ensure their products are safe and lawful under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. We also plan to issue guidance to assist firms that intend to produce human foods from cultured animal cells to prepare for pre-market consultations. The published draft of this guidance will provide a formal opportunity to the public for comment. We are already engaged in discussion with multiple firms about various types of products made from cultured animal cells, including those made from seafood cells, which will be overseen solely by the FDA. We continue to encourage firms to enter into dialogue with us often and early in their product development phase, well ahead of making any submission to us.
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