Vireo Team Hosts CMSI Workshop and Attends FPPxCMS, Chicago 2026!
The Workshop
The Vireo Advisors Team, in collaboration with New Harvest, hosted a Cultured Meat Safety Initiative (CMSI) Workshop at McCormick Place in Chicago this February 2026, co-located with the Future of Protein Production x Cultured Meat Symposium (FPP x CMS). This workshop marked the 13th session in the CMSI series to advance shared and open safety knowledge, data, methods, and practices for the emerging field of cellular agriculture toward greater acceptance.
During this February session, participants from industry, academia, and government engaged in focused discussions on culture media inputs and other safety topics. Thanks to strong participation and valuable contributions from all attendees, three new collaborative projects were launched on the topics of microcarriers and scaffold safety, final product composition analyses, and expansion of the Safety Assessed Media Ingredient (SAMI) framework supported by growth factor and small molecule testing.
The Microcarriers and Scaffolds project aims to develop shared definitions and a classification scheme as well as identify safety-relevant parameters and evaluation methods for diverse materials used in cultivated meat production. The first step is to form a project team and then survey companies to identify common scaffold and microcarrier materials. Longer-term efforts include identifying and reaching out to stakeholders in academia and industry who can contribute to methods and data development, as well as develop working groups to participate in the project. If you are interested in getting involved here, please do not hesitate to let us know and we can facilitate collaboration with our project leads.
The Quality Evaluation of Final Products project is currently seeking a project lead. The goal here is to build a benchmark compositional dataset for conventional meat and seafood products that can be used to support safety assessments of cultured meat products. The next steps are to identify collaborators, funding sources, and key data gaps through literature reviews and stakeholder surveys, followed by targeted analytical measurements where data are missing. If you are interested in participating in this project as a lead, working member or benchmarking products against conventional meat safety data, please do reach out.
Lastly, the SAMI and Growth Factor Safety project builds on earlier stages of the SAMI framework (Phase I here, Phase 2 in publication stage, which Vireo has been leading with GFI APAC), initiated in 2024 through prior CMSI workshops. The next phase aims to expand the SAMI list to include substances without a history of safe-use in food, supported by a harmonized safety evaluation approach for growth factors, mixtures such as hydrolysates and small molecules. Planned next steps include mobilizing partners to provide test ingredient samples, identify funding streams, and conduct in silico digestion model studies. If you wish to participate in the research please let us know!
Check out the CMSI website for the full workshop summary and contact us at cmsi@vireoadvisors.com to get involved! We need your input and commitment along with that received from the participating laboratories, researchers, industry professionals and governmental representatives.
The Conference
At the CMS conference, Vireo Advisors President Jo Anne Shatkin served as moderator of a distinguished legal expert panel discussing the fragmented regulatory landscape shaping the future of alternative proteins in the United States, with a focus on cultivated meat products. One key takeaway was that there is a strong need for push-back on restrictive state-level regulation on plant-based and cultivated meats to harmonize with their accepting federal regulations as is required by federal law. Panelists also discussed the very small volumes of cultivated products for the foreseeable future that are at odds with the proposed state-level bans aimed at protecting agricultural interests.
Also representing Vireo Advisors at the FPP conference, Dr. Kimberly Ong led a candid fireside chat with Brittany Chibe of AQUA Cultured Foods, who shared lessons from inside a precision fermentation- based seafood startup that recently ceased operations. The conversation unpacked the realities of scaling alternative protein platforms – including capital intensive scale-up, shifting funding dynamics, managing burn, the need for clearer communication with consumers about emerging food technologies, and the leadership decisions required when a company reaches a turning point.
The Vireo team further strengthened its presence at the FPP x CMS Expo through an exhibitor booth where we welcomed colleagues, clients, friends and visitors throughout the event. The conversations highlighted the significant progress made across the future-of-protein ecosystem and underscored how far the industry has advanced toward bringing cultivated meat and seafood products to market. Through these engagements, the team gathered valuable insights into the safety considerations and regulatory challenges facing companies today and remains committed to addressing these challenges through CMSI’s collaborative, science-driven approach, and new ideas for projects.