Apply to present your new food products in Toronto in October 2024

FAO, in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), will hold a stakeholder roundtable meeting on cell-based food production and precision fermentation on 10 October 2024. This is the third meeting in the series, and relevant developers, producers and researchers can apply to the call to present their original products.

A call for presenters is now open, and the selected presenters will have an opportunity to meet other stakeholders from various parts of the world to discuss their products and to share relevant experiences. The meeting will capture a snapshot for the 2024 status of the art of the industry in cell-based food production and precision fermentation, with all the latest developments of technologies and techniques. Some Canadian government agencies are invited to participate; therefore, it can be an opportunity for the participants to interact with them to ask questions.

“Since we had held the first stakeholder meeting on cell-based food in Israel in 2022, this technology has been quickly advancing further. Maintaining an up-to-date global knowledge will help FAO to provide appropriate and adequate technical assistance to food safety competent authorities, especially those in low- and middle-income countries,” said Masami Takeuchi, Food Safety Officer at FAO.

“For its second stakeholder meeting, held in 2023 in China, FAO has widened the scope to include precision fermentation as a related technology. Participants at this event engaged in strong multi-sectoral discussions among producers, researchers, and regulators to understand key elements in food safety assessment for regulatory requirement. All attendees reported to finding this open dialogue quite valuable to foster impactful collaboration to assure food safety, because in the end, food safety is a shared responsibility,” she explained.

Interested parties may apply through the call. After the selection process is completed, successful applicants will receive additional information about the meeting. The due date to submit the online application is 1 July 2024, but early submissions are strongly encouraged as the preliminary selection process may start as early as 1 April 2024.

Call for presenters: http://www.fao.org/3/cc9728en/cc9728en.pdf

For more information

FAO Food Safety and Quality – Cell based food and precision fermentation