Posted on 10 May 2023 by The Manufacturer
Cell-cultured meat or cultivated meat is meat grown in a lab from animal stem cells, a process which poses no risk to animals. These cells are cultured, and their tissues modified into a product considered to be climate friendly.
The processes behind the production of cell cultured meat are continuously developing with key players in the growing global cultivated meat industry under pressure to ensure their product can be made in an efficient, safe and profitable way.
Singapore is ahead of the game in authorising cell-cultured meat and at present, it isn’t licensed for sale in either the UK or the EU. The UK and the EU have fairly similar regulatory frameworks in place, but there is an opportunity in a post-Brexit landscape for the UK to design a new regulatory approval process for authorising cell-cultured meat and other similar innovative food products.
Current UK regulatory position
Before cell-cultured meat is marketed in the UK it must be approved by The Food Standards Agency (FSA) as a “novel food” under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 (as retained in UK law).
Approval requires the following criteria to be satisfied:
- no safety risks to human health (scientific evidence must be provided)
- transparency around the food’s intended use – this is particularly important when the food is a substitute for another food and impacts nutritional value
- if the novel food replaces another food type, it must not be nutritionally disadvantageous for the consumer.
It can take up to 17 months for an FSA novel food approval, as stated in their authorisation guidance. The guidance also references that the timeline can stop and re-start if further information is required, whilst the quality of the application will dramatically impact the time needed for assessment and authorisation.
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