Food Safety of Fermented Proteins and Cultivated Meat and Seafood

Food Safety of Fermented Proteins and Cultivated Meat and Seafood, written by Kimberly J. Ong, Fiona Case and Jo Anne Shatkin from Vireo Advisors, chapter 6 in Cellular Agriculture Technology, Society, Sustainability and Science published by Elsevier,  reviews potential hazards specific to the manufacture and consumption of fermented proteins and cultivated meat and seafood.

We describe established food safety assessment approaches relevant to these novel foods. We highlight best practices from related nonfood technologies and new, alternative, and in-silico technologies that can contribute to safety evaluation. We also highlight gaps and future research needs.

Precision-fermented-produced enzymes and processing aids have been part of commercial food production for decades, where approaches to evaluating safety are well established. Safety evaluation for new foods will address any concerns associated with the consumption of the protein itself, any safety issues about the production organism, and potential safety hazards introduced during food production and processing. Future research and development of in silico and in vitro techniques for predicting allergenicity, and for rapidly assessing protein secondary and tertiary structures for routine quality control, would improve safety evaluation, along with a greater understanding of protein fate during digestion

Cultivated meat and seafood production rely on cell culture techniques widely used in pharmaceutical production and basic scientific research. Established principles and processes in these related fields can help inform a safety framework for cultivated meat and seafood. Standards and methods to assess the safety of conventional food, feed, novel foods, biotechnology products, medicines, and other biologicals are applicable to the safety assessment of cultivated food products. Elements of globally harmonized standard methods for quality management systems such as GMP and GCCP will support safe production.

Safety assessment for cultured cells includes comparison to conventional meat or seafood and critical evaluation of any differences. Potential hazards related to the inputs used during production can be assessed, as can the potential for microbial contamination introduced during the production and processing. As the field develops, we will learn more about the types and concentrations of potentially hazardous metabolites or expression products and whether they will likely remain in the final product at significant levels. As more products enter the market, approaches to evaluate safety will be developed and modified from existing methods and standards, supporting the safe manufacture of cultivated meat and seafood products