The APAC Regulatory Coordination Forum has released two white papers that address essential safety and regulatory concerns for cultivated meat to support their commercialization while promoting safe innovations in the Asia-Pacific market.
The new resources examine current gaps in cell line developments and cell culture media components — the building blocks of cultivated meat production — identified as the two regulatory topics of highest interest in 2024.
“Regulatory coordination is undoubtedly very important in this nascent stage of our industry”
The cell line development paper focuses on issues related to cell line documentation, stability, genetic modification, and trade requirements for cultivated food production. Meanwhile, the cell culture media paper addresses safety assessment protocols, evaluation of expression systems for media substances, categorization of media components, quality standards, genetic engineering standards, and conformity assessment procedures.
The papers were developed with input from industry experts, academic institutions, and regulators across ten APAC jurisdictions to ensure a comprehensive and diverse perspective, providing foundational information and guidance to regional regulators. They also aim to empower regulators to co-develop internationally harmonized standards, guidelines, and recommendations on food safety aspects for cell lines and culture media inputs.
APAC-SCA Program Director Peter Yu shared, “Regulatory coordination is undoubtedly very important in this nascent stage of our industry. The APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture instigated the Forum in early 2023 and has been co-coordinating it since October 2023 – a key milestone for our association and member companies. Collectively, we hope that the Forum can serve long-term benefits for a variety of stakeholders including cultivated meat companies, regulators, and ultimately our consumers.”
Collaborating for a food-secure future
The APAC Regulatory Coordination Forum, co-led by the Good Food Institute APAC and the APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture (APAC-SCA), was created to facilitate ongoing dialogue among key stakeholders, including companies, industry associations, think tanks, government agencies, and food regulators across multiple jurisdictions.
Announced during the novel food regulations roundtable hosted by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), the primary aim of the forum is to coordinate regulatory approaches for cultivated foods in the region, ensuring a cohesive and streamlined entry of cell-based foods into the market. Cultivated meat companies in the region include Avant Meats, Simple Planet, CellX, Aleph Farms, IntegriCulture, Joe’s Future Foods, Gaia Foods, Ants Innovate, DaNAgreen, Seawith, and Meatable, which recently joined APAC-SCA as its newest member.
GFI APAC Managing Director Mirte Gosker commented, “International regulatory coordination is critical to unlocking the full economic potential of cultivated foods and bringing sustainable proteins to consumers across the world’s most populous region.
“By reducing trade barriers and streamlining safety approval processes for new protein sources, the APAC Regulatory Coordination Forum is building bridges for greater global collaboration and creating a roadmap to a more secure food future.”
The white papers can be downloaded here.
