Scottish business to test if lab-grown food could be safe to eat

An Edinburgh firm – part of the institute that cloned Dolly the sheep – is to investigate if lab-grown food could be safe for humans to eat.

It’s part of a Food Standards Agency (FSA) programme that aims to gather “rigorous scientific evidence” about cell-cultivated products before they can be sold to consumers.

Cell-cultivated products (CCPs) are foodstuffs made without traditional farming methods such as rearing livestock or growing plants and grains.

Cells from plants or animals are grown in a controlled environment to make the product – such as a lab-grown burgers cultured from animal tissues.

There are currently no CCPs approved for human consumption in the UK.

But in February, in what is thought to be a world-first, dog treats made from lab-grown meat went on sale at a UK pet retailer.

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Chick Bites are made from plant-based ingredients combined with cultivated meat, which is produced by growing cells.

The CCP companies who have been selected to participate in the programme include Edinburgh-based Roslin Technologies and firms from France, the Netherlands and Australia.

It was the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh that successfully cloned Dolly, the sheep, in 1996.

Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, but not the first ever sheep to be cloned.

Scientists named Dolly after singer Dolly Parton and she was kept a secret for the first months of her life.

Dolly reproduced but died in 2003 – but is now on display in the National Museums of Scotland.

Lab-grown burgers ‘could be meal staples by 2054’

Researchers from the University of York-based FixOurFood programme said last year that consumers will increasingly turn to laboratory-grown meat cultured from animal tissues.

People will consume a wider range of insect proteins and preserves as part of their daily diet, with the nutritional quality of termites, crickets, locusts and grasshoppers seeing them utilised more in food products, a report suggested.

Meanwhile, vegetable consumption will evolve towards embracing locally-sourced seasonal produce and traditional preservation methods such as pickling and fermenting.

Professor Robin May, chief scientific advisor at the FSA, said: “Safe innovation is at the heart of this programme. By prioritising consumer safety and making sure new foods, like CCPs are safe, we can support growth in innovative sectors.

“Our aim is to ultimately provide consumers with a wider choice of new food, while maintaining the highest safety standards.”

Science minister Lord Vallance said: “By supporting the safe development of cell-cultivated products, we’re giving businesses the confidence to innovate and accelerating the UK’s position as a global leader in sustainable food production.

“This work will not only help bring new products to market faster, but strengthen consumer trust, supporting our Plan for Change and creating new economic opportunities across the country.”