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The UK is launching a pilot business support service to “guide” companies developing new cultivated meat products.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) announced the first-of-its-kind program in June. The FSA and FSS noted that several cultivated meat products are currently in development, including a chicken fillet and a beef burger, and that both agencies have already received a small number of applications for “cultured” proteins.
Read more: Cultivated Meat ‘Breakthrough’ Mimics Circulatory System, Grows Chicken ‘Nuggets’
“The FSA’s role is to make sure all foods are safe before they are sold in [the] UK,” said Thomas Vincent, Deputy Director of Sandbox and Innovation at the FSA. “As cell-cultivated products are now being developed in new and innovative ways, it’s vital they continue to meet our high safety standards.”
Cultivated meat businesses will be able to get in touch with the FSA/FSS before submitting an official application to clarify essential requirements like hazard identification, safety standards, and data collection. The service will also support businesses post-application.
“This new service will help businesses understand what is needed to prove their products are safe, and guide them through the authorisation process,” added Vincent. “By making it easier for companies to get things right from the start, we can support growth in the cell-cultivated product sector while giving consumers a wider choice of safe food.”
Overall, the program will also help regulatory bodies better understand emerging technologies. The FSA/FSS said that they also intend to expand the service to include companies using precision-fermentation – a modern take on traditional fermentation that allows the creation of hyper-realistic animal products – at some point in the future.
Read more: Company Unveils Peer-Reviewed Life Cycle Analysis Of Precision Fermented Proteins
Cultivated meat in the UK
In 2024, the UK became the first-ever country to approve cultivated meat for use in companion animal food. Meatly, a company making slaughter-free chicken meat for both dogs and cats, gained regulatory approval in July of last year. However, no cultivated meat products have yet been approved for human consumption. In March, the FSA introduced a two-year “sandbox programme” to gather evidence on the cultivated meat safety.
Read more: UK Launches Pioneering Research Programme For Cell-Cultivated Products
