Food safety bosses are predicting a flood of new applications for lab-grown meat products, after announcing government backing for a fast tracking system to prove the products are safe.
The Food Standards Agency revealed today it had received a £1.6m grant from the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology for a new “sandbox” programme funding a dedicated team to gather “rigorous scientific evidence” on cell-cultivated products (CCPs) and the technology behind them.
FSA bosses said the move was a key breakthrough for the sector and would help the UK to become world-leading in the development of lab-grown products. It sees them as a major opportunity to develop foods that are beneficial for the environment and could eventually be tailored to improve the UK’s diet once they reach mass production.
The sandbox, which will be jointly run by the FSA and Food Standards Scotland, is due to launch in February and operate over a two-year period, is expected to work with a raft of companies who are planning to bring to the market products including lab-grown beef, chicken and duck.
Currently the FSA has received applications from French lab-grown chicken manufacturer Vitalmeat, Israeli cellular agriculture company Aleph Farms and fellow lab beef manufacturer Ivy Farm, plus French startup Gourmey, which in July submitted an application to UK and EU regulators for authorisation of its lab-grown foie gras.
But the agency said it now expected to work on at least 15 projects in the two-year period of the sandbox and predicted the development could see many more companies join the revolution in technology.
The Sandbox will see FSA-funded scientists work alongside food companies in closely audited conditions to test the safety of cell-grown products and their processes.
Meanwhile, the agency said it was pushing ahead with parallel plans, revealed previously by The Grocer, for a system of international co-operation for approval of lab-grown meat, as well as other regulated products such as CBD and insect foods. This could see the UK allow products to the market that had been approved by the likes of Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, which are already further ahead in regulating such products.
The proposals, however, have yet to receive backing from the new Labour government, although the FSA indicated that it planned to use some of the £1.6m funding to set up a new international regulatory network, which would help pave the way for such a system of regulatory approval.
The announcement of a successful bid for sandbox funding, under a process first set up under the previous government, was, said the FSA, a potentially important milestone in making the UK a world leader in the technology, even though the UK government has previously been criticised by some for being too slow.
Professor Robin May, chief scientific advisor at the FSA, said: “These are products that are radically different to anything that’s been tried or novel food processes that have gone before.
“They are a different type of science and that needs a different type of regulation.
“Ensuring consumers can trust the safety of new foods is one of our most crucial responsibilities and the CCP sandbox programme will enable safe innovation and allow us to keep pace with new technologies being used by the food industry to ultimately provide consumers with a wider choice of safe foods.”
CCPs are foods made without using traditional farming methods such as rearing livestock or growing plants and grain, with cells from plants or animals grown in a controlled environment to make a food product.
The FSA claimed the UK was one of the largest potential markets in Europe, with high levels of interest expressed by consumers but currently there are no products approved for human consumption on these shores.
“We need to learn more about these products and how they’re made, to make sure they’re safe for consumers to eat,” added May.
In July, regulators cleared the use of chicken cultivated from animal cells in petfood produced by lab meat company Meatly.
The FSA said the sandbox would enable it to make well-informed and more timely science and evidence-based recommendations about product safety and address questions that must be answered before any CCPs can enter the market.
Legal experts predicted the launch of the sandbox would be a significant milestone for companies waiting in the wings.
“The FSA’s regulatory sandbox signals the UK’s commitment to finding a reliable, predictable and safe way to bring some of the most innovative cell-grown food products to market,” Katrina Anderson, principal associate at Mills & Reeve LLP, told The Grocer.
“It has the potential to put the UK at the forefront of innovation in sustainable alternative proteins.”
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