The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is to ensure that cell-cultivated products, including lab-grown steak, beef, chicken and foie gras, are safe to eat before being sold to UK consumers.

The UK is one of the largest potential markets for cell-cultivated products (CCPs) in Europe but currently none are approved for human consumption.

The FSA, in collaboration with Food Standards Scotland (FSS), has been awarded £1.6m from the government’s Engineering Biology Sandbox Fund to develop an efficient safety assessment process for CCPs.

Demand for alternatives to regular meat is surging because of concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment. Meat and dairy farming contribute to a rise in the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.

However, in most parts of the world, CCPs, which are created from animal cells and produced in bioreactors, have not made it past food regulators and on to supermarket shelves.

In 2020, the Singapore Food Agency was the first regulator to grant approval for the...