The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has partnered with Food Standards Scotland (FSS) to publish the country’s first safety guidance for cultivated products.
The documents have been produced by the FSA and FSS’s CCP Sandbox Program, which focuses on cultivated foods derived from animal cells. Several pieces of safety guidance are set to be published; of these, two are already available.
The first confirms that cultivated products made using animal cells are defined as products of animal origin, meaning that businesses must apply existing food safety regulations during the production process. The second provides guidance on allergenicity assessments and how nutritional quality will be assessed as part of the approval process.
“Our new guidance provides clarity for businesses, helping them to understand and correctly demonstrate to UK food regulators how their products are safe,” said Dr. Thomas Vincent, Deputy Director of Innovation at the FSA. “Specifically, this guidance ensures that companies have assessed potential allergenic risks and that they are nutritionally appropriate before they can be authorised for sale.”
Fast-tracking regulatory knowledge
The CCP Sandbox Program was launched last year, after the government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) allocated £1.6 million to the project through the Engineering Biology Sandbox Fund. Claimed to be the first of its kind in Europe, the sandbox aims to accelerate the authorization process for cultivated proteins. It is working to boost regulators’ scientific knowledge of cultivated meat, develop detailed guidance, and provide companies with pre-submission consultations to streamline approval timelines.
No cultivated products have yet been approved for sale in the UK. However, seven companies are currently participating in the sandbox; these are Hoxton Farms (UK), BlueNalu (USA), Mosa Meat (The Netherlands), Gourmey (France), Roslin Technologies (UK), Vital Meat (France), and Vow (Australia).
“Consumers can be reassured that these innovative new foods will meet the same rigorous safety standards as conventional foods,” said Dr. Vincent. “The Sandbox programme is allowing us to fast-track our regulatory knowledge to reduce barriers for emerging food technologies without compromising on safety standards.”
