The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has launched a regulatory programme for cell cultivated products (CCPs), or lab-grown meat.
Funded by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), the FSA said it will make sure CCPs are safe for consumers before they’re sold, whilst supporting innovation in the sector.
The FSA said the aim is to gather rigorous scientific evidence about CCPs and how they are made to inform how the FSA and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) should regulate the products.
Lab-grown or cultured meat is a form of cellular agriculture. The process involves a small biopsy of animal origin, which is then placed in a specially formulated growth medium and kept at body temperature.
The Democratic Unionist Party’s (DUP) agriculture, environment and rural affairs spokesperson in Westminister, Carla Lockhart MP said: ”This is a hugely concerning revelation and another blow to the generations of farmers who work tirelessly on a daily basis, 365-days a year, to produce nutritious, wholesome food to feed the nation.
“Trust between farmers and the government is broken, and many are already at breaking point.”
Lockhart said paving the way for lab-grown, cultivated or synthetic meat, sugar and dairy products was “an ill-informed utopia.”
“Hailing from a farming background I have grown up eating farm-fresh, seasonal produce. I find it very hard to believe that meats such as beef and chicken can been replicated in a laboratory,” she said.
The MP added: “Climate activists are fixated on blaming agriculture and farm livestock as a significant contributor to rising global emissions.
“UK farmers are constantly bombarded with environmental targets and regulations, yet a four-lane highway is being developed through a protected area of Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest, in preparation for the United Nations COP30 climate summit in the city of Belem.
“Safeguarding food security will protect family farms, provide employment, drive the economy and the production of healthy food will contribute to the long-term health of the nation,” she added.
