Food Standards Agency (FSA) Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Robin May recently visited the University of Bath as part of the launch campaign for a new sandbox initiative aiming to enhance consumer safety and innovation in cell-cultivated products (CCPs).
Joined on his visit by Dr Joshua Ravenhill (Head of Cell-Cultivated Product Sandbox), Prof May spent time with the team from the Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub (CARMA), which is led by a team within the University's Department of Chemical Engineering and headed by Professor Marianne Ellis.
Work through CARMA, which is funded by EPSRC, aims to transform food production, transitioning to an environmentally, economically and socially sustainable model in which new manufacturing systems complement traditional food production.
Led from the Hub at University of Bath, CARMA is a multidisciplinary collaboration with the Universities of Aberystwyth, Birmingham, Bristol, Royal Agricultural University and University College London.
Over many years, Prof Ellis has been pioneering new approaches to growing meat instead of rearing animals and is now working on scaling this work. Prof Ellis is also co-founder and CTO of Cellular Agriculture Ltd.
Through the new FSA sandbox, CARMA will collaborate with a team of scientists and regulatory experts, as well as the CCP industry and trade organisations. Its aim is to gather rigorous scientific evidence to inform how the FSA and Foods Standards Scotland (FSS) regulate future products.
Professor Robin May, Chief Scientific Advisor at the FSA, 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."
Science Minister, Patrick 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."
On his recent visit to Bath Prof May added: “Visits like these to the University of Bath are invaluable in working out what the new technologies of the future might be, where the risks are and where the benefits might be and it’s really valuable to see this on the ground.”
Dr Joshua Ravenhill added: “The aim is of this sandbox is to allow us, the FSA, to ensure the consumer safety of these new products as well as being able to assess them much more quickly than we can at the moment. Providing more clarity to industry, we can improve confidence in the UK as a place to do business.”
Prof Marianne Ellis, CARMA Director, said: “It was great to welcome to the University of Bath Chief Scientific Adviser for the FSA, Professor Robin May, and to brief him on our work and activities in CARMA.
“Through the DSIT-funded FSA sandbox programme - led by Dr Joshua Ravenhill who joined Professor May for the visit - important rigorous scientific evidence for the safe and responsible development of cell-cultivated products will be collected and debated, and we’re delighted to be working with government, academics and with industry partners on this really important area for future food systems.”
The evidence will enable the FSA to assess CCP applications more efficiently and make sure they are safe before they can be sold to consumers. The FSA will provide clearer guidance to businesses, and address questions that must be answered before any CCPs can enter the market. Through the programme, the FSA is committed to completing the full safety assessment of two CCPs within the next two years.
As part of the sandbox launch on Monday 10 March, the FSA announced the eight CCP companies who have been selected to participate in the programme. The participants were chosen through a rigorous selection process to represent the diverse, international range of technologies, processes, and ingredients used in CCP production.
CCP businesses participating in the programme are Hoxton Farms (UK), BlueNalu (USA), Mosa Meat (The Netherlands), Gourmey (France), Roslin Technologies (UK), Uncommon Bio (UK), Vital Meat (France) and Vow (Australia).
As well as also working with the wider international CCP industry, the FSA will work closely with academic partners including the Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub (CARMA) led by the University of Bath, National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC), and the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein. The trade body who will represent the broader industry is the Alternative Proteins Association (APA), alongside non-governmental organisation (NGO) The Good Food Institute Europe (GFI).