FSA and FSS publish new guidance to help businesses bring cell-cultivated products and other novel foods safely to market.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA), in partnership with Food Standards Scotland (FSS), has published four new pieces of guidance to help businesses developing and producing cell-cultivated products - sometimes known as 'lab-grown meat' - and other novel foods navigate the regulatory requirements needed to bring safe, innovative products to market.
The guidance, produced through the Cell-Cultivated Products Sandbox Programme, is the second batch of publications from the Department of Science and Technology (DSIT)-funded initiative, which runs until February 2027. The Sandbox complements the market authorisation process by bringing together the regulators and industry to develop a shared understanding of how food regulations apply to cell-cultivated products. These are new foods that don't involve conventional farming such as rearing livestock or growing plants and grains, they are made by taking cells from plants or animals, which are then grown into food. The sandbox programme focusses on animal cells only.
The documents published today are:
Food business hygiene requirements for cell-cultivated products : guidance on applying General Food Law and Hygiene Regulations to the production of cell-cultivated products.
Supplementary guidance on identity, production and microbiology : detailed scientific requirements for evaluating cell-cultivated products when applying for market authorisation as novel foods in Great Britain, covering how to characterise cell lines, describe production processes and manage microbiological hazards.
Improving your cell-cultivated product application : practical recommendations to help businesses prepare stronger, more complete applications for market authorisation, addressing the most common reasons applications face delays or requests
