October 8, 2024

The future of authorising cell-cultivated products and news on the Food Standards Agency funding from their Chief Scientific Advisor Prof Robin May

Many people hope and believe that one part of how we get to Net Zero will be by reducing meat eating in our diets. Much has been written about lab based meat but to move from the excitement and ambition we need to do hard science. Science on which kinds of approaches will produce tasty alternatives. Science on how we can ensure those products are safe to eat. And science on how to ensure they are nutritious and as good for our health as they will be for the environment.

Thanks to a major funding grant to be announced on Tuesday, the FSA will embark on a project to assess and evaluate the science that will ultimately take some of these cell cultivated meats to our supermarket shelves. 

To coincide with this announcement, the SMC invited the FSA’s Chief Scientific Advisor Professor Robin May to brief journalists on how the FSA will spend the money, and elaborate on the steps the FSA will take in coming years to regulate and license these future foods.

Speakers included:

Professor Robin May, Chief Scientific Advisor, Food Standards Agency

Joshua Ravenhill, Head of Policy Priorities, Food Standards Agency