EFSA’s Scientific Colloquium 27 “Cell culture-derived foods and food ingredients”

Background

Recent advances in fields such as tissue engineering, cell culture, and synthetic biology have paved the way for new technological approaches and products in the agri-food sector. Among these, cell culture-derived foods of animal or plant origin and food ingredients produced through precision fermentation are emerging.  

In the EU system, such products require pre-market authorisation under different sectoral regulatory frameworks, such as the novel food and the food additives regulations, involving EFSA’s scientific advice. Therefore, it is essential that EFSA’s risk assessment methodologies and expertise in the field keep abreast of these technological developments. 

With this Scientific Colloquium, we brought together 80 in-person and 550 online relevant experts and stakeholders to discuss ongoing trends and research on the topic, and the requirements for keeping EFSA’s risk assessment fit-for-purpose. 

Objectives of the event

The Colloquium aimed to: 

• Identify sectors in the agri-food system relevant to cell culture-derived foods and food ingredients; 
• Review the state of the art of relevant concepts, technologies, and derived products; 
• Discuss emerging safety and methodological aspects and their impact on EFSA’s risk assessment approaches. 

The Colloquium built on previous and ongoing discussions between EFSA and EFSA’s stakeholders, such as a dedicated session of the “Future food and feed lab: Stakeholder workshop on new food and feed sources and technologies”.

A detailed report including conclusions and recommendations for the future will be published in the coming months.

Recordings

Day 1 session 1

Day 1 session 2

Day 2 session 1

Day 2 session 2