FSA criticised over push to fast-track ‘lab-grown meat’ approvals in the UK
Criticisms have been raised at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) for wanting to accelerate approval of lab-grown meat for the UK market.
The FSA is reportedly planning to use the approval of regulators in other countries to allow technologies like lab-grown meat and insect-based products to be consumed in the UK. The agency has published plans that would ensure approval faster than existing laws inherited from the EU, according to the Grocer.
This follows recent reports that the FSA is looking to do a deal with Israel, where the health Ministry approved cultivated beef from a company called Aleph Farms in January. The company’s products are made from starter cells that come from a fertilised egg, sourced from a premium Black Angus cow named Lucy, Jewish News reports.
The FSA believes that the move will help it ‘escape EU regulation’ and get through its current backlog of approvals but the move has sparked accusations of ‘hypocrisy and duplicity’ from stakeholders in the traditional meat industry.
Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS) spokesperson Dr Jason Aldiss contrasted this approach with the FSA’s refusal to reconsider regulatory controls inherited from EU legislation for the meat industry that have been labelled as ‘stringent’ and ‘unscientific’.
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