Regulatory authorisation and the assessment of growth media components and toxicology are both covered in the guidance, giving food businesses further advice on how existing food regulations apply to cell-cultivated products.

FSA said this would help businesses to prepare stronger applications and understand the standards they must meet to bring products safely to market in Great Britain.

The guidance, which is the third batch of guidance to come from the FSA’s Sandbox Programme, also sets out how the regulated products framework applies to cell-cultivated products, as well as how to handle changes to an authorised product.

The Programme was launched in February 2025 and runs until February 2027. Businesses will work with FSA and FSS to build regulatory understanding of cell-cultivated products before using insight gained to produce practical guidance for the wider sector.

“We’re building a shared understanding of how food regulations apply to genuinely novel products.”

Dr Thomas Vincent, deputy director of innovation at the FSA, commented: “Each batch of guidance we publish makes the path to market authorisation clearer and more predictable for companies developing cell-cultivated products, while ensuring consumer safety remains at the core of everything we do.

“Through the Sandbox programme, we’re building a shared understanding of how food regulations apply to genuinely novel products, and turning that understanding into practical guidance the whole sector can benefit from.”