New Paper: Standardising Safety Testing for Cultivated Meat Media
We are pleased to announce a new publication in Foods highlighting work to advance safety assessment approaches for cultivated meat. This work is an output of the Cultured Meat Safety Initiative (CMSI), in collaboration with Ruth Wonfor and partners at Multus, reflecting the importance of cross-sector collaboration between academia, industry, and safety experts.
The paper, “Standardising Culture Medium Safety Testing for Cultivated Meat: Outputs from a Workshop and Case Study”presents key outcomes from a CMSI workshop where knowledge gaps were identified and a set of collaborative projects established. In order to close the knowledge gap, a practical case study explored analytical methods for evaluating culture media inputs and potential residues, e.g. growth factors, in cultivated meat products. The study outlines priority research areas needed to support transparent, science-based regulatory review.
Some key goals from this project:
1. Development of standardised analytical methods of detecting media residues with ELISA
2. Harmonised CoA for culture media ingredients
3. Characterisation of metabolites and breakdown products
4. Creation of publicly-available data infrastructure to improve regulatory compliance and confidence
In this study, validated toxicological and quantification methods such as ELISA were applied to media protein residues in cultivated meat culture media and then benchmarked against conventional meats. The study highlighted limitations of current testing approaches, and outlines a path forward for harmonised testing and reporting of media ingredient residues. Effectively, building a centralised residue data repository, and establishing risk-based testing strategies for priority inputs. Published open access, this paper provides industry, academic, and government stakeholders with a practical reference point for evaluating culture media safety.
We gratefully acknowledge funding support from Multus, Innovate UK and BBSRC, as well as contributions from workshop participants and collaborators across the cellular agriculture ecosystem.
This publication represents another step forward for the CMSI, whose mission is to openly develop and share safety knowledge, data, and methodologies that can accelerate regulatory review and responsible commercialization of cultivated meat and seafood products. For more information about CMSI: Check out our website here and get involved at the next workshop.