The safety of cell culture-derived food – ready for scientific evaluation
EFSA kicks off a two-day scientific colloquium to gather views and insights from leading scientific minds, representatives of European, international and national agencies, technology companies and food operators, consumer groups and an array of individuals and other organisations with an interest in this highly topical issue.
EFSA’s aim is to ensure we are taking into account all the latest scientific and risk assessment developments in setting standards for evaluating the safety of these new food technologies. We also want to engage with producers and wider society.
As an appetiser to the event, which is being streamed online live, we spoke to experts in this field to illustrate some of the scientific issues involved and the social and economic backdrop.
What are tissue engineering and precision fermentation?
Ramiro Alberio, one of the panellists at the EFSA colloquium, is a professor of developmental biology at the University of Nottingham in the UK.
Prof Alberio said: "Cell and tissue engineering allows the cultivation of cells and tissues separately from an entire organism. For example, starting from only a few cells sourced from a muscle or another organ, these cells can be grown under controlled conditions without the other parts of the organ.
"Cellular engineering is already being used in medicine to regenerate tissues or replace damaged or diseased cells. The technologies are advanced now and could be applied in other areas, such as the agri-food sector".
So-called precision fermentation is a technology that uses microorganisms to produce specific products such as proteins, human-identical milk oligosaccharides, vitamins or fibre.
Prof Alberio said: "Precision fermentation has been in use already for years to produce medicine such as insulin and food enzymes, for example in cheese production. The science behind this technology is constantly evolving, increasing the array of potential food applications".
Are foods and food ingredients produced with these technologies safe?
It is EFSA’s role to evaluate the safety of novel foods in the EU, including those derived from new technologies such as cell culture and tissue engineering.
Wolfgang Gelbmann is a senior scientific officer at EFSA in the novel foods area and overall rapporteur for the colloquium.
He said: "So far EFSA has not been asked to evaluate any food derived from cultured animal cells, what people might call ‘lab-grown meat’. But we have assessed several novel food ingredients produced through precision fermentation.
"We expect to receive novel food applications on cell-culture derived foods in the coming months and years. So, we are keeping pace with the science to stay prepared when such applications arrive".
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