Dutch businesses and experts visit London for fact finding mission on cellular agriculture

Both the UK and the Netherlands are advancing rapidly in cellular agriculture technologies,  following significant investment in research and innovation. In the UK, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) works closely with companies, among them Mosa Meat from the Netherlands, to accelerate the approval process for cell cultivated products, through its Cell Cultivated Products Sandbox Programme. The FSA and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) last December published the UK’s first safety guidance on cell-cultivated products.

Delegates from the Netherlands attended an engagement event organised by the FSA/FSS and the APA on the  Cell Cultivated Products Sandbox Programme;  visited the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein at Imperial College for discussions and networking sessions with UK representatives of businesses, universities and government departments; and toured the facilities of Multus, who combine AI, robotics, and biotechnology methods to optimise growth media for cell cultivation, and the headquarters of Hoxton Farms, a biotechnology company in London that builds modular clusters of bioreactors to grow high-margin products from stem cells for food and pharma.

Disscussions over the two days focused on priorities for collaboration in research and education and also covering topics such as funding and scaling as well as regulatory issues.

The Agriculture Team at the Embassy wants to thank the co-organisers and all participants for their valuable contributions that resulted in a successful fact finding mission.