Lab-grown meat firms say post-Brexit UK could be at forefront

theguardian.com:

Britain could become a world leader in cultured meat production post-Brexit by outflanking the EU to bring the hi-tech products to market swiftly, industry leaders say.

Cultured meat is grown from animal cells in a bioreactor that can be powered by 100% renewable energy, thereby curbing both greenhouse gas emissions and animal cruelty.

EU product approvals for the technology will take up to three years but the lab-grown meat sector is hoping that a post-Brexit white paper on the national food strategy due in May could accelerate the UK process.

Figures in the £1.9bn global industry say they have already had meetings with the UK’s Food Standards Agency on the post-Brexit regulatory framework for the products.

In Singapore where products made from cultivated meat are already on sale, the evaluation process takes nine to 12 months.

“There’s definitely an opportunity for the UK to become one of the primary innovation hubs for these sorts of novel technologies,” Robert Jones, the head of theCellular Agriculture Europe trade association told the Guardian.

“The UK is a large market and every company will be looking at it as an incredible commercial opportunity,” said Jones, who is also an executive for the Dutch startup Mosa Meat.

The company hopes to seek regulatory approval for two beef products later this year. Peter Verstrate, its co-founder, said that the UK “would be at least a year ahead of the EU” in bringing products to market if it adopted a six- to nine-month assessment period.

Last year the UK Food Standards Agency chair, Prof Susan Jebb, described lab-grown meat as one of “the new innovations that might help us to change course” away from climate catastrophe. A “lens of environmental sustainability” might be applied to