Industry & News

In a strategic paper titled 'EFSA needs for scientific excellence and regulatory readiness', the European Food Safety Authority names cultivated meat and precision fermentation as areas where it needs to build its own specialist expertise. Current novel food guidance sets out only high-level scientific requirements without specifying every data element, a gap linked to authorizations that average more than three years against the 17 months the regulation stipulates. GFI Europe welcomed the move and called for regulatory sandboxes.

England's updated school food standards, published September 15, 2026, require primary schools to serve beans, lentils or chickpeas at least once a week alongside main meals (once every two weeks for secondary schools during a one-year transition), reclassify baked beans as a protein rather than a vegetable, and add fortified pea milk and qualifying plant-based yogurt to the list of permitted options alongside unsweetened oat and soy milk. The standards also cap processed meat at once weekly, limit cheese-as-main-ingredient to twice weekly, and ban deep-fried food outright.

Singapore's Food Agency has approved Aleph Farms' Thin-Cut Steak, which combines non-modified, non-immortalised Black Angus cattle cells with a soy-and-wheat plant-protein matrix under the Aleph Cuts brand. The Israeli company is targeting operational production in the first half of 2027, with restaurant launches planned in Singapore and Israel.

Jiangsu University patented an "infinite color-mixing 3D printing" method that prints pH-sensitive anthocyanin pigments (from red cabbage, purple sweet potato, hibiscus) directly into freshness labels — replacing estimated "best before" dates with a real-time visual readout of actual spoilage gases.

Corbion (via Purac Biochem BV) patented an antimicrobial polymer sheet for fresh-meat packaging that kills contaminating bacteria at the packaging surface instead of leaching chemicals into the food — extending shelf life for minimally-processed foods where traditional preservatives aren't an option.

Cargill's patent-pending high-temperature vacuum-stripping process removes 50-70% of phthalate contaminants — plastic-derived chemicals linked to health risks — from vegetable oils during refining, without degrading oil quality, directly addressing tightening global regulatory scrutiny of the compounds.

Paris DeepTech startup Spore.Bio (built on Pasteur Institute research, backed by a €22M Series A) patented a microfluidic device paired with machine-learning analytics that detects bacterial contamination on-site in real time, versus the 5-20 days traditional lab testing requires — aimed squarely at the rising cost of food-safety recalls.

Solenis Technologies patented the use of monochloramine as a sterilizer/pasteurizer biocide that controls bacteria, mold, and biofilm across a wider pH/temperature range than chlorine-based biocides — while causing less equipment corrosion and working at concentrations as low as 1-10 ppm.