The FAO/WHO Scientific Advice Program has officially launched a new publication Food safety aspects of cell-based foods.
The report provides authorities in low- and middle-income countries with accurate information and scientific knowledge on cell-based food production, enabling them to take the necessary regulatory actions. Moreover, they can benefit from the experience of more developed countries by learning from their good practices in this field, explains FAO.
Dr Mark Post, CSO and co-founder of the Dutch company moses meat, who, in 2013, released the world’s first farmed burger in London, served on FAO’s technical panel as a consulting expert on the report.
As more than 100 companies, including Mosa Meat, are already developing cell-based food products ready for commercialization and soon awaiting approval, FAO said it is important to address food safety as one of the most important issues for consumers and industry.
Safety of cell-based products
Last year, FAO organized expert consultations in Singapore and Israel to identify food safety risks associated with cell-based products. The objective was to capture major food safety issues before the products became widely available in the market.
The results of this consultation are published in this report and shared in a joint FAO/WHO webinar open to Codex members and observers that was held online today, 5 April.
“This FAO report is a step towards the international standards we envisioned when we introduced meat farming to the world in 2013. Food We also evaluated the unscientific scenarios popular among opponents of cellular agriculture and found them so improbable that they did not merit further discussion,” Dr. Post commented in a statement today.
“In summary, the food safety risks of farmed meat are the same as conventional meat, and they can be contained with proper handling and testing as conventional meat,” he concluded.