Introduction
Cell-cultivated products cover a variety of foods that can be made using a production process without slaughter or traditional farming and agricultural practices. Cells isolated from animals or plants, including cells from meat, seafood, fat, offal, or fertilised eggs are grown in a controlled environment, and then harvested to make a final food product.
Through the Cell-Cultivated Products sandbox programme (Feb 2025- Feb 2027), the FSA and FSS will fast-track our knowledge about cell-cultivated products and use this to produce guidance on a range of topics relevant to these products. As we gather more information through the sandbox programme, we will develop and publish further guidance to help businesses understand how food regulations apply to their products, including updating guidance published earlier in the programme.
This guidance has been developed to help relevant businesses understand and correctly apply the requirements of the hygiene regulations when producing cell-cultivated products. It contains references to relevant legislation that applies and what it means for the food business operators. Further guidance expanding on additional hygiene-related topics will be developed and published through the course of the programme.
Intended audience
This guidance is intended for all parties involved in the production of cell-cultivated products, originating from animal cells, for human consumption. For the purposes of this guidance, we will only be referring to cell-cultivated products produced from animal cells.
This guidance applies to businesses based in:
- Scotland, where FSS is the food safety authority,
- England and Wales, where the FSA is the food safety authority.
Legal status of guidance
This guidance is not law. It has been produced to provide guidance on the legal requirements of production of cell-cultivated products and should be read together with the relevant legislation.
This guidance cannot cover every situation, and you will need to consider the relevant legislation itself to see how it applies in your circumstances.
Compliance with the law is not voluntary, but operators are not obliged to follow the advice in this guidance, as other ways of achieving compliance with the law may be equally valid.
Review
This guidance is accurate as at the date of publication.
We aim to keep all guidance up to date and undertake regularly reviews to ensure guidance remains relevant. The next scheduled review for this guidance is no later than December 2026.
Contact us
We welcome your feedback on this guidance by contacting us at CCPSandbox@food.gov.uk