Cultivated meat company, Gourmey, has secured a regulatory milestone in the United Kingdom. The company announced that its application for approval has been validated by both the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS), making it the world’s first cell-cultivated meat company to receive such validation in the UK.
Accelerating the path to market
“We are proud to announce that GOURMEY is the world’s first cell-cultivated meat company to have its application validated in Great Britain,” said Nicolas Morin-Forest, CEO and co-founder of Gourmey. This marks the commencement of Gourmey’s regulatory assessment process in the country.
This development follows a series of similar achievements in other regions. Gourmey had previously received validation from the European Union’s European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and Switzerland’s Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO). The UK approval brings the company one step closer to offering its cultivated meat products to consumers in the country, as it moves to the next stage of risk assessment.
Earlier this year, Gourmey was selected to join the UK’s regulatory Sandbox for cell-cultivated products. The initiative, supported by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, is designed to accelerate the regulatory process for novel food products. It allows collaboration between regulatory bodies, industry leaders, and scientists to gather scientific data and refine regulatory approaches.
Last year, Gourmey became the first company to apply for regulatory approval to sell cultivated meat in the European Union. It has also submitted applications in Singapore, Switzerland, the UK, and the United States.
Lowering costs for scalable production
In May, Gourmey received independent validation from the consultancy firm Arthur D. Little, which concluded that its 5,000-liter bioreactor system can produce cultivated meat at a cost of $3.43 per pound. A few weeks ago, the company announced a new partnership with DeepLife, a company specializing in AI-driven cellular technology. This collaboration aims to optimize the production of cultivated meat at scale, particularly through the development of an “avian digital twin” — a virtual model of poultry cells designed to improve growth conditions, nutrient density, and flavor expression in cultivated meat.
As Gourmey continues to push forward in its regulatory journey, Morin-Forest concluded, “We’re excited to continue working closely with the UK FSA, FSS, and our partners to ensure the highest standards of safety and transparency ahead of commercialisation.”
