As with every new technology, safety demonstration is critical to bringing cultured meat and seafood (CM) products to market and gaining public acceptance. Through the Cultured Meat Safety Initiative (CMSI), Vireo Advisors and New Harvest have identified research and method development needs based on a series of interviews and workshops with governmental scientists and regulators from food safety agencies in fifteen jurisdictions globally. This presentation will provide an overview of the current state of CM safety assessment with emphasis on research and methods needed to evaluate the safety of CM products from the view of regulatory scientists. Safety demonstration of CM may require the development of new analytical methods or adaptation and validation of existing methods. The presentation will also include a detailed discussion of priorities for methods development, including identifying and detecting bioactive culture media components, adapting and validating microbial assessment methods, and developing and validating methods to evaluate the genetic stability of cell lines. Participants emphasized that public safety databases, similar to those used in the food and pharmaceutical industries, would be critical to increasing general understanding of CM safety, increasing the efficiency of CM safety evaluations, and building consumer and regulatory trust in CM products. CMSI is now focused on identifying and engaging public and private stakeholders, including academic, governmental, and industry scientists, to undertake research and method development towards CM safety demonstration. Our long-term goal is to develop and validate analytical methods and use these methods to generate public datasets to support transparent food risk assessments and policy-making processes.