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Daily Tribune
11-03-2025
- Business
- Daily Tribune
Lab-Grown Meat, Dairy, and Sugar Could Hit UK Markets Within Two Years
Lab-grown meat, dairy, and sugar could be available for human consumption in the UK within the next two years, as regulators seek to fast-track the approval process. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is exploring ways to expedite the authorization of lab-grown food products, which are cultivated from cells in controlled chemical environments. While UK firms have been at the forefront of this scientific advancement, many feel that current regulations have hindered their progress. The move to accelerate approvals aims to address concerns that British companies are falling behind international competitors, where regulatory processes are significantly quicker. Last month, the UK saw its first commercial sale of pet food containing lab-grown meat, a development that has sparked increased discussion on the potential for similar products to reach human consumers. Globally, Singapore became the first country to approve the sale of cultivated meat in 2020, followed by the United States in 2023 and Israel in 2024. However, not all regions are embracing the technology—Italy, along with the US states of Alabama and Florida, have imposed bans on lab-grown food. In response, the FSA is collaborating with experts from high-tech food companies and academic institutions to develop new regulations. The agency aims to complete the full safety assessment of at least two lab-grown food products as part of a two-year approval framework. However, critics argue that involving food companies in drafting the new regulations presents a conflict of interest. Pat Thomas, director of the campaign group Beyond GM, expressed concerns about industry influence, stating, "The companies involved in helping the FSA to draw up these regulations are the ones most likely to benefit from deregulation. If this were any other type of food product, we would be outraged by it." Defending the approach, FSA chief scientist Prof. Robin May emphasized that consumer safety would not be compromised. "We are working very closely with the companies involved and academic groups to design a regulatory structure that benefits innovation while ensuring food safety remains at the highest possible level," he told BBC News. Science Minister Lord Vallance dismissed concerns about deregulation, framing the changes as "pro-innovation regulation." He explained, "We are trying to align regulations with the needs of innovation and reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and duplication." Lab-grown foods are developed by growing plant or animal tissue from small cell samples. In some cases, gene editing is used to enhance specific properties of the food. Proponents claim that these products could be more environmentally sustainable and healthier alternatives to traditionally farmed foods. The UK government is keen to see lab-grown food firms flourish, hoping they will drive job creation and economic growth. Despite the country's strong scientific expertise in this field, regulatory delays have slowed commercial progress compared to other nations such as Singapore, the US, and Israel. One company eager for change is Ivy Farm Technologies, based in Oxford. The company has already developed lab-grown steaks using cells from Wagyu and Aberdeen Angus cows. Ivy Farm applied for regulatory approval to sell its steaks to restaurants early last year, but CEO Dr. Harsh Amin believes the two-year waiting period is a major obstacle. "If we can shorten that to less than a year while maintaining the very highest of Britain's food safety standards, that would help start-up companies like ours to thrive," Amin stated. With the FSA's new initiative underway, the UK may soon join the growing list of nations where cultivated food products are available to consumers, signaling a potential shift in the future of food production.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
What we know as lab-grown meat set for UK shelves within two years
Lab-grown meat products such as burgers that have been created without animals being killed could be on shelves in Britain within two years. The technology to grow meat products from cells has been available for some time, but products have not been sold in the UK because of a lack of regulation and safety research around the technology. The UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) hopes to accelerate the timeline to do a full safety assessment of lab-grown foods so that they can go on sale. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Professor Robin May, the chief scientist at the FSA, told the BBC: 'We are working very closely with the companies involved and academic groups to work together to design a regulatory structure that is good for them, but at all costs ensures the safety of these products remains as high as it possibly can.' Lab-grown products for animals are already on sale, with Pets at Home selling Chick Bites which combine plant ingredients with cultivated meat. The cultivated meat is grown using 'cellular agriculture', in which a sample of cells is taken from a living animal, usually under local anaesthetic. The cells are then placed in a bioreactor – a tank full of nutrient-rich growing medium that allows the cells to multiply. The cells grow into muscle and fat and are then harvested from the bioreactors and placed on 'scaffolds' - edible materials that help shape them into a burger, for example. The scaffolds are tiny, almost microscopic structures used to grow cells into realistic clumps of meat resembling muscle fibres. Each cultured meat company has its own methods for growing cells and structuring them into something resembling meat. For example, Aleph Farms - a cellular agriculture company active in the food technology space - creates 'steak' by growing it along a plant-based scaffolding to replicate muscle fibres using meat, fat and connective tissue. The combination of tissues are put in a nutrient broth for four weeks, growing into a thin slice of 'steak' which can be grilled. Although no animals are harmed in the production of cultivated meat, it is not considered vegan. The Vegan Society says that cultivated meat still involves using cells from farmed animals and therefore is not strictly vegan. "Veganism as a philosophy is concerned with ending the exploitation of, and cruelty to, non-human animals," says the Vegan Society. "As such, it's understandable that some vegans may be drawn to the possibilities of this technology. However, as our policy position makes clear, cultured meat is not vegan or a panacea for the horrors of animal use and exploitation." The taste of cultivated meat has evolved considerably, with breakthroughs improving the texture and taste over the years. Writing in The Spark, MIT Technology Review's weekly climate newsletter, in March 2023, Casey Crownhart said: "It was definitely different from beef, but maybe not in a bad way. The texture was similar, which makes sense since it was mostly made from plants. "Taste-wise, I thought the lab-grown meat may have been a bit closer to the beef burger, but I found myself wondering if I'd feel the same way if I didn't know which was which. Was my brain tricking me into thinking it tasted more like meat, since I knew that there were animal cells in it? I took bites of all three burgers again to try to figure it out. I'm still not sure. " Online publication Inverse tested lab-grown chicken and said that while it tasted like chicken, it felt somewhere between fish and poultry. The publication wrote: "I take a bite and the flavor is savory and somewhat familiar. It tastes like chicken, to use an old cliche, but it doesn't necessarily feel like chicken." In 2022, Time Magazine tried Aleph Meat's steak, which comes in a strip of beef grown from stem cells in a bioreactor. Climate correspondent Aryn Baker was impressed, writing, "It is as tender and juicy as the interior of a filet mignon. As I cut into it, the meat tears into strands more characteristic of a brisket, but with none of the dryness. "I take a bite. The flavor is pure meat—a caramelized crust giving way to a savory richness. The square shape and thin cut betray my steak's bioreactor origins, but eyes closed, I wouldn't know the difference... It doesn't taste like the future. It tastes like steak. Without the guilt." Some cultivated meats have been certified as kosher, but there is not universal agreement among rabbis about whether all cultivated meat is kosher. Orthodox Union Kosher, the world's largest kosher certification authority, certified products from Israeli chicken product company SuperMeat. Israel's chief rabbi ruled that Aleph Farms thin-cut steak is kosher, and not considered as meat. But questions still remain for some authorities, especially over issues such as where the cells are sourced from. Different authorities have expressed different views, but - broadly speaking - cultivated meat can be halal. Speaking to the National in 2024, Farhan Siddiqi, a graduate of Makkah's Umm Al Qura University and the imam of Dar Al Hijra Islamic centre in the US state of Virginia said that cultivated meat can be halal if certain conditions are met. Much current cultivated meat is not halal because the cells are taken from a living animal. To be halal, the meat has to come from a cow that has been slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law, Siddiqi said, meaning that it has been humanely slaughtered by a Muslim, had its blood drained and was in good health when killed. Singapore was the first country to approve lab-grown meat for human use, approving the technology in 2020. The United States approved lab-grown meat in 2023, with products available via restaurants in San Francisco – and expected in mainstream retail by 2026. Israel has approved some products for sale, and countries including the Netherlands and Australia making progress towards approving lab-grown meat products. By contrast, Italy banned cultivated meat in December 2023 over fears around how it may impact traditional farming. The US state of Florida has also banned it with state governor Ron DeSantis announcing in May 2024 that he wanted to "save our beef" from the "global elite" and its "authoritarian plans".
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lab-grown food could be sold in the UK within two years
Lab-grown food could be sold in the UK within two years, a watchdog has indicated. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it was committed to completing the full safety assessment of two cell-cultivated products (CCPs) within the next two years. The watchdog has launched a 'pioneering' regulatory programme for CCPs to make sure they are safe for consumers before they are sold, funded by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology's Engineering Biology Sandbox Fund. CCPs are new food products made without traditional farming methods such as rearing livestock or growing plants and grains. Instead, cells from plants or animals are grown in a controlled environment to make the product. There are currently no CCPs approved for human consumption in the UK. FSA chief scientific adviser Professor Robin May said: 'Safe innovation is at the heart of this programme. 'By prioritising consumer safety and making sure new foods, like CCPs, are safe we can support growth in innovative sectors. 'Our aim is to ultimately provide consumers with a wider choice of new food, while maintaining the highest safety standards.' A team of scientists and regulatory experts will work with academic bodies, the CCP industry and trade organisations on the two-year programme. Science minister Lord Vallance said: 'By supporting the safe development of cell-cultivated products, we're giving businesses the confidence to innovate and accelerating the UK's position as a global leader in sustainable food production. 'This work will not only help bring new products to market faster, but strengthen consumer trust, supporting our Plan for Change and creating new economic opportunities across the country.' The businesses participating in the programme are Hoxton Farms, Roslin Technologies and Uncommon Bio, all from the UK, BlueNalu (US), Mosa Meat (the Netherlands), Gourmey and Vital Meat (France) and Vow (Australia). Hoxton Farms was launched in 2020 by Ed Steele and Max Jamilly, and has been pioneering technology to grow animal fat products that 'look, cook and taste like the real thing'. Roslin Technologies was launched two years later as a biotech company to produce lab-grown pet food. In February, a dog treat made from cultivated meat went on sale at Pets at Home in a move the retailer claimed was a world first. In July last year, the UK became the first country in Europe to back cultivated meat for use in pet food, after chicken produced by the firm Meatly was approved by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Animal and Plant Health Agency. The treat, called Chick Bites, is made from plant-based ingredients combined with cultivated meat, which is produced by growing cells and does not require the raising or slaughter of animals. Meatly said the chicken was produced from a single sample of cells taken from one chicken egg, from which enough cultivated meat could be produced to feed pets 'forever'.
The Independent
10-03-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Lab-grown food could be sold in the UK within two years
Lab-grown food could be sold in the UK within two years, a watchdog has indicated. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it was committed to completing the full safety assessment of two cell-cultivated products (CCPs) within the next two years. The watchdog has launched a 'pioneering' regulatory programme for CCPs to make sure they are safe for consumers before they are sold, funded by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology's Engineering Biology Sandbox Fund. CCPs are new food products made without traditional farming methods such as rearing livestock or growing plants and grains. Instead, cells from plants or animals are grown in a controlled environment to make the product. There are currently no CCPs approved for human consumption in the UK. FSA chief scientific adviser Professor Robin May said: 'Safe innovation is at the heart of this programme. 'By prioritising consumer safety and making sure new foods, like CCPs, are safe we can support growth in innovative sectors. 'Our aim is to ultimately provide consumers with a wider choice of new food, while maintaining the highest safety standards.' A team of scientists and regulatory experts will work with academic bodies, the CCP industry and trade organisations on the two-year programme. Science minister Lord Vallance said: 'By supporting the safe development of cell-cultivated products, we're giving businesses the confidence to innovate and accelerating the UK's position as a global leader in sustainable food production. 'This work will not only help bring new products to market faster, but strengthen consumer trust, supporting our Plan for Change and creating new economic opportunities across the country.' The businesses participating in the programme are Hoxton Farms, Roslin Technologies and Uncommon Bio, all from the UK, BlueNalu (US), Mosa Meat (the Netherlands), Gourmey and Vital Meat (France) and Vow (Australia). Hoxton Farms was launched in 2020 by Ed Steele and Max Jamilly, and has been pioneering technology to grow animal fat products that 'look, cook and taste like the real thing'. Roslin Technologies was launched two years later as a biotech company to produce lab-grown pet food. In February, a dog treat made from cultivated meat went on sale at Pets at Home in a move the retailer claimed was a world first. In July last year, the UK became the first country in Europe to back cultivated meat for use in pet food, after chicken produced by the firm Meatly was approved by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Animal and Plant Health Agency. The treat, called Chick Bites, is made from plant-based ingredients combined with cultivated meat, which is produced by growing cells and does not require the raising or slaughter of animals. Meatly said the chicken was produced from a single sample of cells taken from one chicken egg, from which enough cultivated meat could be produced to feed pets 'forever'.
Saudi Gazette
10-03-2025
- Business
- Saudi Gazette
Lab-grown food could be sold in UK within two years
LONDON — Meat, dairy and sugar grown in a lab could be on sale in the UK for human consumption for the first time within two years from now, sooner than expected. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is looking at how it can speed up the approval process for lab-grown foods. Such products are grown from cells in small chemical plants. UK firms have led the way in the field scientifically but feel they have been held back by the current regulations. Dog food made from meat that was grown in factory vats went on sale in the UK for the first time last month. In 2020, Singapore became the first country to authorize the sale of cell-cultivated meat for human consumption, followed by the United States three years later and Israel last Italy and the US states of Alabama and Florida have instituted FSA is to develop new regulations by working with experts from high-tech food firms and academic says it aims to complete the full safety assessment of two lab-grown foods within the two-year process it is critics say that having the firms involved in drawing up the new rules represents a conflict of initiative is in response to concerns by UK firms that they are losing ground to competition overseas, where approvals processes take half the Robin May, the FSA's chief scientist, told BBC News that there would be no compromise on consumer safety."We are working very closely with the companies involved and academic groups to work together to design a regulatory structure that is good for them, but at all costs ensures the safety of these products remains as high as it possibly can," he critics such as Pat Thomas, director of the campaign group Beyond GM, are not convinced by this approach."The companies involved in helping the FSA to draw up these regulations are the ones most likely to benefit from deregulation and if this were any other type of food product, we would be outraged by it," she science minister, Lord Vallance, took issue with the process being described as "deregulation"."It is not deregulation, it is pro-innovation regulation," he told BBC News."It is an important distinction, because we are trying to get the regulation aligned with the needs of innovation and reduce some of the bureaucracy and duplication."Lab-grown foods are grown into plant or animal tissue from tiny cells. This can sometimes involve gene editing to tweak the food's properties. The claimed benefits are that they are better for the environment and potentially government is keen for lab-grown food firms to thrive because it hopes they can create new jobs and economic UK is good at the science, but the current approvals process is much slower than in other countries. Singapore, the US and Israel in particular have faster Farm Technologies in Oxford is ready to go with lab-grown steaks, made from cells taken from Wagyu and Aberdeen Angus firm applied for approval to sell its steaks to restaurants at the beginning of last year. Ivy Farm's CEO, Dr Harsh Amin, explained that two years was a very long time to wait."If we can shorten that to less than a year, while maintaining the very highest of Britain's food safety standards, that would help start-up companies like ours to thrive." — BBC
