Developing an action plan for pre-competitive, collaborative research on cultured meat and seafood safety

Wei Ng, Breanna Duffy, Kimberly J. Ong, Yadira Tejeda-Saldana, Julia Marschallinger, Julia Griffin, Jo Anne Shatkin

Future Foods

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fufo.2026.101185

Abstract

Cultured meat and seafood (CM) provides an opportunity to help meet growing global demand for nutritious, sustainable, and safe protein sources. Demonstrating safety is critical to bringing CM products to market and gaining public acceptance. However, the lack of standardized safety methods and data requires start-ups to conduct duplicative, resource-intensive research and regulators to rely on a case-by-case approach to safety evaluations. Building upon prior work from the Cultured Meat Safety Initiative (CMSI), this paper presents outcomes from a 2024–2025 workshop series aimed at developing a coordinated safety research action plan and initiating research collaborations. The four workshops engaged 97 international participants. Discussions focused on defining specific research questions, examining challenges to conducting research, and identifying solutions. These efforts culminated in preliminary action plans to address key safety topics, including genetic drift, genetic modifications, growth factors, food safety plans, manufacturing safety tools and methods, and final product evaluation. Participants emphasized the need for cross-sector, multi-disciplinary collaboration, along with open databases and standardized testing methods. By convening CM stakeholders to discuss research priorities and identify concrete next steps, the workshops serve as an important first step towards a coordinated effort to develop open data and methods, ultimately advancing CM safety demonstration.

This publication is an outcome of CMSI Phase III. Learn more about Phase III here!