On 5 April 2023, the FAO/WHO Scientific Advice Programme will release a new publication entitled “Food safety aspects of cell-based food” in a webinar that is open to Codex Members and Observers. Animal-based meat production has evolved over thousands of years to meet the demand for safe and affordable sources of protein. Cell-based food production, which is the field of growing animal agricultural products directly from cell cultures, is being explored as a sustainable alternative or complement to conventional livestock rearing.

As commercial cell-based food production continues to expand, the urgency increases to address one of the most important questions of consumers, namely that of food safety. Thus, FAO, in collaboration with WHO, will issue a milestone publication on the topic in early April.

Webinar participants can expect to:

• obtain an electronic copy of the milestone publication;
• see the various technologies that are currently being used to produce cell-based foods;
• understand the key results of food safety hazard identification conducted by the Technical Panel during the Expert Consultation organized by FAO in collaboration with WHO;
• learn about the current regulatory thinking and developments that currently exist for cell-based foods in different countries and jurisdictions; and
• actively participate in the brainstorming session to discuss country-specific issues and relevant regulatory needs.

Registration

To accommodate various different time zones, there will be two 1.5-hr identical sessions of the webinar to be held on Wednesday 5 April 2023:

• Session 1: 09.00 – 10.30 (GMT+2) Register here
• Session 2: 16.00 – 17.30 (GMT+2) Register here

Learn more

Read more about FAO’s work on cell-based food