Alternative Proteins: the latest

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) board convened on 18 September 2024. While the previous meeting had promised an update on the regulated products reform, no board paper was presented on this topic. However, the discussions did still provide some useful insight into developments both at the FSA and Westminster to streamline the novel foods approvals process. 

The chair confirmed that the regulated products statutory instrument is “making progress” at Westminster. It is assumed (but to be confirmed) that this SI will take forward the proposals set out in the June board meeting to do the following: 

• replace the requirement for an SI to be passed before a novel food can be placed on the market with a public register; and
• to remove the need for reapproval / renewal of those categories of regulated products who require this such as smoke flavouring.  

This would certainly speed up the novel foods approvals process, which it should be noted has already sped up in recent years - the FSA scientific update reported an 80% increase in scientific safety assessments from 2022/23 to 2023/24. Despite that, to date there are no approvals for alternative proteins, with the focus still on other areas, such as CBD products. That said, discussions centred around alternative proteins and cultivated meats and it seems likely that they have been identified as a priority area.
 
One of the challenges identified by the FSA was knowledge, or rather a knowledge void. To tackle this, efforts are ongoing to create specialist subcommittees, to up-skill and also to locate and utilise experts in the field. 

Additionally, the FSA is showing an enthusiasm for greater international collaboration. For example, they are already working with other international regulators regarding safety assessments and have said that expanding this further is an opportunity. The relationship with the EU fraternity has improved since re-joining Horizon and the new government approach to have a closer relationship with the EU should only help further.  

For now, there is no firm commitment to an update at the next board meeting in December. But it is reasonable to expect there might be news since a new board paper was promised in September and this failed to materialise.

Key takeaways 

• The post Brexit novel food approval process is getting more efficient. By removing the need for an SI to be laid down for each novel food that gets approved to go on the market and removing renewal requirements, this process is only going to speed up further.
• Due to the requirement of international regulations safety assessments, greater collaboration with international regulators is a positive for the novel foods’ approval process.  We do not have much detail about this yet, but it will be interesting to see how this develops under the new government.
• There is a consensus at the FSA that they lack expertise in relation to alternative proteins. Measures are being taken to combat this and it is envisaged that this will aid the approvals process.
• There is no firm commitment to another paper / update at the next board meeting, but there are reasons to be optimistic that further developments will occur soon.