Lab-grown meat closer to UK shelves under new rules
Britain’s food regulators published four new pieces of guidance for companies developing lab-grown meat, setting out the safety, hygiene and application requirements they must meet before such products reach UK shelves.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA), working with Food Standards Scotland (FSS), issued the documents on Friday (10 July) as the second batch from the Cell-Cultivated Products Sandbox Programme, a £1.6 million scheme that began in February 2025 and runs until February 2027.
The programme, funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, brings regulators and industry together to establish how existing food law applies to products grown from animal cells rather than farmed livestock.
- The first document sets out hygiene requirements for production under General Food Law and Hygiene Regulations.
- A second covers identity, production and microbiology, detailing how firms should characterise cell lines, describe production processes and manage microbiological hazards when applying for market authorisation.
- A third offers practical advice on strengthening applications, addressing the most common reasons submissions face delays or requests for further information.
- The fourth explains businesses’ responsibilities when running taste trials of novel foods as part of research and development.
Thomas Vincent, Deputy Director of Innovation at the FSA, said cell-cultivated products “represent a genuinely new frontier for the food industry” and that the guidance would make the path to authorisation “more transparent and efficient”.
He said consumer safety was “non-negotiable” and the documents aimed to cut barriers for emerging food technologies without lowering safety standards.
Susan Jebb, Chair of the FSA, said innovation in food could support a healthier and more resilient food system while contributing to the government’s growth ambitions, but only if businesses had the regulatory clarity to invest and the confidence to scale up.
She said the guidance offered practical support backed by a science-led approach that protected public health.
Great Britain has not yet approved any cell-cultivated product for sale, and such foods must pass a novel food authorisation before reaching consumers.
The sandbox, which works with a small group of industry participants, aims to complete full safety assessments within two years, letting the FSA process applications more quickly.
The FSA published its first batch of guidance in late 2025, confirming that products made from animal cells count as products of animal origin and must follow existing food safety rules during production.
Lab-grown meat is already on sale elsewhere, with Singapore clearing cultivated chicken in 2020 and the United States following in 2023.
The sandbox also runs a Business Support Service, open to companies developing cell-cultivated products until February 2027, giving them direct access to FSA and FSS regulatory experts.
