The UK’s Food Standards Agency has published the first of several pieces of guidance for cultivated meat regulation, born out of its ongoing regulatory sandbox.
The UK is finally breaking away from EU-era regulations on novel foods, with the government publishing two pieces of safety guidance to advance its cultivated meat industry.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) have been working with several industry members since February as part of a sandbox programme to overhaul the regulatory framework surrounding these foods.
Now, the first results of this collaboration are here, with two publications providing guidance on the classification, hazard analysis, and allergenicity and nutritional requirements for cultivated meat applications.
It marks a shift away from the EU’s novel food regulations, which the UK still followed post-Brexit. “Directly applicable EU legislation no longer applies in Great Britain,” the guidance states, though it will continue to be applicable in Northern Ireland.
“Our new guidance provides clarity for businesses, helping them to understand and correctly demonstrate to UK food regulators how their products are safe,” said Thomas Vincent, deputy director of innovation at the FSA.
“Specifically, this guidance ensures that companies have assessed potential allergenic risks and that they are nutritionally appropriate before they can be authorised for sale,” he added.
What does the UK’s cultivated meat guidance cover?
The first piece of guidance is designed to help companies understand and correctly apply hygiene requirements when producing cultivated meat.
It confirms that cultivated meat produced using animal cells is defined as a product of animal origin. This means businesses must apply existing food safety regulations during the manufacturing process. That said, these products don’t satisfy the legal definition of “meat”, which is defined as having edible parts of animals.
“We do not consider a final cell-cultivated product to be an edible part of any of the animals listed in that regulation,” the FSA and FSS wrote. Other legislations that relate to animal welfare or microbiological criteria can’t be readily applied to cultivated meat either. The regulators will give further thought to this issue in the future as part of the sandbox programme.
The guidance also outlines how cultivated meat startups can create and adhere to a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), a legal requirement that ensures all risks are identified and mitigated in the manufacturing process and the final product is safe for human consumption.
The second guide outlines the scientific requirements for evaluating the allergenicity and nutritional credentials of cultivated meat in regulatory filings. “Applications should demonstrate that a novel food is not nutritionally disadvantageous compared to any food it may replace,” the document reads.
Companies must provide data on the macro- and micronutrient profile of their proteins, alongside amino and fatty acid compositions, and proposed uses. The role of cultivated meat in the consumer’s diet – whether replacing meat completely, or adding cell-cultured ingredients at a low percentage to a pre-existing product – needs to be understood to evaluate its nutritional impact, the regulators said.
“It is expected that cell-cultivated proteins will be consumed by diverse and broad populations and may include exposure of individuals to allergens that they have not previously encountered,” they wrote. “Therefore, [they] require careful assessment to understand allergenicity risks, ensuring consumer safety.”
Cultivated meat sandbox will boost regulatory efficiency, says FSA
The sandbox programme, which runs until February 2027, is funded by the Department of Science and Technology. The FSA describes it as a “new approach to regulation” to allow the government to support innovation by giving companies clarity on how to prove their products are safe.
The scheme included eight startups when it began: Hoxton Farms, Roslin Technologies, Uncommon Bio (all UK), BlueNalu (US), Vow (Australia), Mosa Meat (The Netherlands), Gourmey (France), and Vital Meat (France).
Since then, Uncommon Bio has sold off its cultivated meat business to Vow and Dutch firm Meatable, and Gourmey has acquired Vital Meat to form a new company called Parima. Though the latter remains part of the UK sandbox, its exact current makeup is unclear.
So far, only one cultivated meat product has made it to British shelves, but it was for dogs. When it comes to human use, Aleph Farms, Ivy Farm Technologies, and Parima (through both Vital Meat and Gourmey) have filed for approval, with the latter the furthest along in the assessment process.
The FSA said its sandbox will boost business confidence and its own efficiency in regulating cultivated meat. It used the learnings from the programme alongside expert elicitation and literature review to publish the two documents, and has outlined plans to release further guidance for these foods throughout 2026.
“The sandbox programme is allowing us to fast-track regulatory knowledge to reduce barriers for emerging food technologies without compromising on safety standards,” said Vincent. “Consumers can be reassured that these innovative new foods will meet the same rigorous safety standards as conventional foods.”
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