As part of the celebrations for World Food Safety Day (June 7), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will launch their new food safety toolbox – a new central repository for guidance documents based on the Codex Alimentarius General Principles of Food Hygiene.

Our roundup of the latest cultured meat developments includes announcements from Mosa Meats, Meatable, Aleph Farms, Smart MCs, and UPSIDE, plus commercially-relevant research from Tufts, Kobe University, and Enzymit, FDA approval for consumption of gene-edited pigs, regulatory and governmental perspectives on cultured meat safety research priorities from Vireo and New Harvest, and new labelling requirements in Texas.

At Vireo, we keep close surveillance on commercialization and regulatory developments in cultured and alt-protein meat and seafood, and we have rarely seen as much activity as this! Here is our roundup of the latest developments…

The FDA announced today that they were withdrawing the “Food Standards; General Principles and Food Standards Modernization” rule, proposed in 2005 and were aiming to make FDA definitions and standards of identity for foods consistent with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and the standards used by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to inspect meat and poultry products.

Replacing animal-origin cell culture reagents, such as fetal bovine serum (FBS), will support sustainability and cruelty-free claims for cultured meat. It is also an important step towards risk reduction and assuring food safety. The SFA continues to take a leadership position among the world’s regulatory agencies ensuring that these sustainable new products are also safe.