Check out GFI Brazil's analysis on the regulation of foods made from cell culture and precision fermentation
On December 18, 2023, Anvisa published Resolution RDC No. 839, which regulates the registration of innovative foods and ingredients, including those originating from cell culture and fermentation. This regulatory framework, which comes into effect on March 16, 2024, places Brazil in a prominent position internationally, paving the way for attracting investments in sustainable food innovations, and also brings us ever closer to launching products made from these two technologies later this year.
The regulation has a broad scope, covering the criteria for safety assessment for all new foods and ingredients, which are those without a history of consumption for at least 25 years in the country. This encompasses many of the diverse innovations that food engineering presents to us every day and represents an important step towards regulating cultivated meat in Brazil.
In the regulation, the agency defines all the steps and requirements necessary for companies producing cultivated meat and its ingredients to present data that guarantee that these products are safe for the consumer. The technical document to be submitted for evaluation by the agency must contain the methods for screening, selection, preparation and maintenance of the cell lines, the description of the production process and the composition of the culture medium and the nutritional composition of the products obtained.
“This move by Anvisa indicates that cultivated meat is safe as food if produced within strict technical standards. In order for companies to start producing it in Brazil, it is now up to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock to define the complementary regulations, which include product registration, its labeling rules and the inspection regulations for production units. We expect this to happen throughout 2024, because this market will grow rapidly worldwide,” says Alysson Soares, senior specialist in Public Policies at GFI Brazil.
With the publication of this regulation, Anvisa stands alongside other regulatory agencies, such as EFSA in the European Union, the USDA/FDA partnership in the United States, SFA in Singapore and NFS in Israel, as pioneers in realizing the importance of defining a regulatory framework for cultivated meat that is based on science and is favorable to innovation and investment. Of fundamental importance for this positioning of the main global regulatory agencies were the following: scientific studies developed by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) over the past two years.
Regarding this, the Vice President of Public Policies at GFI Brazil, Alexandre Cabral, adds that “it is very significant that Brazil, one of the most important countries in the global food production scenario, states that cultivated meat is safe at a time when several countries are taking legislative action to prohibit or limit the advancement of this technology”.
GFI Brazil has been promoting this debate in Brazil since 2018, when it held the first seminar on cultivated meat within the Brazilian government. Since then, it has been collaborating on the topic in Brazil and abroad, through participation in expert groups and the publication of regulatory and scientific studies.
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18/12/25
