10 February 2026

As cultivated meat moves closer to regulatory consideration in the UK, a new report has set out a series of public-led recommendations aimed at ensuring the technology contributes to a fairer, safer, and more transparent food system.

Cultivated meat - which is grown from animal cells rather than produced through traditional livestock farming - has been developed over decades and is now transitioning from research into potential commercialisation.

The Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub (CARMA), a collaboration between the University of Bath, the Royal Agricultural University (RAU), University College London (UCL), Aberystwyth University, the University of Birmingham, and the University of Bristol, aims to responsibly develop and integrate novel cellular agriculture tools and technologies into current food systems to deliver sustainable food manufacturing in the UK and beyond.

As part of the project, researchers at the RAU convened a diverse group of UK citizens - the CARMA Citizen Forum - to deliberate on the wider social, ethical, and environmental implications of cultivated meat.

Over the last year, 18 people representing the diversity of the UK public have engaged with scientists, regulators, and other experts, in discussions exploring public health, environmental sustainability, animal welfare, equality, affordability, and the distribution of power within the food system.

Citizen Forum participants also took part in a series of technical “Deep Dive” sessions, providing early input into CARMA’s research agenda and contributing to the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) “regulatory sandbox” for cell-cultivated products.

Professor Marianne Ellis, Director of CARMA at the University of Bath, said: “It is fantastic that the Citizen Forum has been able to contribute in this way; doing so early will allow us to maximise their steer on our research efforts. The discussions have been engaging and productive and such participatory research will continue to be central to our thinking and planning going forward.”

Rather than reaching a simple position for or against cultivated meat, the Forum has developed a set of conditions it believes must be met for cultivated meat to earn public trust and social licence in the UK. While participants expressed confidence in the UK’s food safety system and the role of the FSA, they emphasised that safety alone is not sufficient to secure public confidence.

Dr Atenchong Talleh Nkobou, Senior Lecturer in International Rural Development at the RAU, and James Riley, a RAU Research Fellow, have been leading the Citizen Forums for the CARMA project.

James explained: “We know, from other research, that one of the main immediate concerns people have when they hear about cultivated meat is the potential health impact. Over the course of a year, we have given the Forum members time, space, and resources to deliberate on a food future with cultivated meat, developing views that are far richer than can be captured in a survey.

“In conversation with a range of experts, the Forum members developed a set of recommendations to help address the concerns that they anticipated with the introduction of these products. For example, on health they recommended that we introduce two-year eating trials to assess any impacts, a requirement for mandatory, ongoing, long-term, and independent product testing, and the introduction of strict controls on imports of cultivated meat.

“However, the Forum’s recommendations go beyond public health and safety, extending to important questions of power and transparency, and equality and affordability.”

Other recommendations include the establishment of a non-commercial governing body to oversee the cultivated meat sector and ensuring that industry accountability extends to include animal welfare, environmental impacts, and market power. There should also be analysis of how cultivated meat could affect food equality in the UK and support for farmers through compensatory and transition schemes.

However, alongside their concerns, Forum members expressed cautious optimism about cultivated meat’s potential to reduce animal suffering, lower the environmental impact of diets, and improve food system resilience and security by offering an alternative protein source.

Participants also called for clear, standardised, and mandatory front-of-pack labelling, including the use of the term “cell” and concise explanations such as “grown from animal cells,” to avoid consumer confusion.

Dr Talleh Nkobou added: “The CARMA Citizen Forum is a multi-year initiative and new cohorts of citizens will be invited each year to deliberate on emerging developments in cultivated meat and the wider cellular agriculture sector. This first report marks the beginning of an ongoing public conversation, rather than a definitive verdict.

“The Forum’s findings underline that the future of cultivated meat in the UK will depend not only on scientific innovation, but on how the technology is governed, regulated, and integrated into existing social, cultural, and economic systems.”

 

CARMA is funded by a grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Its structure uses a hub and spoke model for the academic partners: the University of Bath is the ‘hub’ and UCL, Aberystwyth University, the University of Birmingham, RAU, and the University of Bristol are the ‘spokes’.

More details, and the full CARMA report, can be found here.