The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has been awarded £1.4 million for the development of a new innovation hub, with the purpose of developing and expanding expertise in the regulation of novel food technologies, especially precision fermentation, to ensure the food safety of their resulting products. The funds were awarded to FSA by the UK Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT).

The innovation hub will help protect consumers by ensuring the safety of precision fermented foods by giving innovators and investors greater clarity on regulatory requirements. It will align with DSIT’s Regulatory Innovation Office’s broader work to ensure regulation supports and keeps pace with novel innovations.

The hub will bring together the FSA’s existing work on novel foods and food created through genetic technology, alongside the recently launched sandbox program for cell-cultivated products. Specifically, the funding will enable FSA to:  

• Boost its scientific capacity for risk assessment of novel foods  
• Provide greater regulatory clarity to industry on how to gain market authorization in Great Britain alongside Food Standards Scotland, including through a new business-focused guidance hub
• Support wider innovation in food through enhanced regulatory capacity on the most innovative products.  

The innovation hub also complements FDA’s other commitments to support growth with regulation, such as the rollout of new approaches to food standards inspections and food hygiene controls, as well as ongoing auditing of UK standards as they relate to international trade.