The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) has released a significant new report which identifies potential hazards that could be introduced during cell sourcing/culturing, production, harvesting, and processing for cultured or cell-based foods and considers the sequence of events that would need to take place for harm to occur to consumers – a critical first step in risk assessment for these new foods. The report, released today, also tackles the challenges of terminology in this field and describes regulatory frameworks and authorization for market entry worldwide.

This report is the culmination of work by a panel of international experts, including Kimberly Ong and Jo Anne Shatkin from Vireo Advisors, and Breanne Duffy from our partner on the Cultured Meat Safety Initiative (CMSI) New Harvest. The technical background sections, authored by Mark Sturme and Gijs Kleter, Wageningen Food Safety Research, the Netherlands, are rooted in work with New Harvest as part of the cultured meat safety initiative. The detailed food safety hazard section was born from the FAO/WHO expert consultation in Singapore in November 2022 co-located with our CMSI workshop about safety research priorities of international governmental scientists and regulators.

The authors conclude this comprehensive review of current knowledge on food safety aspects of cell-based food with the hope that feedback and comments prompted by this publication will continue to move the field forward. We look forward to partnering with leaders in the cultured meat field to advance safety methods, knowledge and acceptance so that these novel sources of protein will become a sustainable source of healthy and nutritious food for future generations while reducing environmental impacts.