Kimberly Ong Featured in the latest edition of Protein Production Technology International: No need no reinvent the wheel

The latest edition of Protein Production Technology International has been published and it features our very own Kimberly Ong! In this issue, Kim highlights how that “we don’t need to reinvite the wheel” when it comes to food safety evaluations: Many of the scientific methods for evaluating food safety already exists; however, there “is still uncertainty in how to apply these methods to cultivated meat and seafood products”.

Key to solving this challenge is collaboration among companies in the cultivated meat and seafood industry, researchers, and regulators. Collaboration allows to create common safety assessment frameworks that can speed up the approval process and reduce the cost of cultivated meat and seafood. For example, Vireo Advisors, New Harvest, and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (AMII) are creating a growth factor thermostability dataset for AI applications to understand the stability of growth factors after cultivated meat products are harvested, cooked and eaten.

Despite the uncertainties in this space, regulatory agencies are gaining experience with alternative proteins and engaging with the industry and scientific community to assess the submissions of companies applying for regulatory approval of their products. However, it is not only up to the regulators to engage with companies and researchers, but also up to the industry and scientists to generate and publish scientific studies.

Finally, more funding for collaborative research, standardizing testing methods, and regulatory science initiatives will benefit the industry.