Future Foods Takeaway | Autumn 2025
Published on 24th September 2025
How is the future of food changing? Developments in the UK’s fast‑evolving regulatory landscape for future foods
Welcome to the first edition of our new quarterly newsletter which will bring you legal updates, regulatory developments and our Insights in relation to alternative protein products and the novel food sector.
There is a great deal of regulatory movement across the UK future foods landscape. With precision breeding rules due to take effect in November, the RIO and government set to work together to push for pro‑innovation regulation and the Food Standards Agency’s sandbox bedding in, the environment is evolving quickly.
Businesses will be keeping a close eye on further regulatory reforms as well as developments with the UK‑EU sanitary and phytosanitary agreement which may also impact this landscape.
Precision breeding in England: new rules coming into force in November
The future of food is changing rapidly, and alternative proteins are at the cutting edge, supported by government policies that encourage the development of lab-grown meat and gene-edited plants. In England, the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 ushers in a streamlined regime for precision-bred organisms used in food and feed. The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025 will initially regulate the release and marketing of plant-based precision-bred organisms in England.
At its core, the regime provides a framework that permits the adaptation of an organism’s DNA to enhance specific traits. The precision-bred products will only be authorised where they are not a risk to health, do not mislead consumers and are not nutritionally inferior compared with their traditionally bred counterparts. The regulations are due to come into force on 14 November.
The new legislation will be welcomed by UK manufacturers who are keen to be at the forefront of food and feed biotechnology. The UK has positioned itself as a leader in genetic technology, offering a favourable regulatory environment for businesses and investors. However, compliance with the regulations may prove challenging, particularly in light of the anticipated UK-EU sanitary and phytosanitary agreement, the details of which are yet to be confirmed.
For more, please see our Insight.
How the RIO and government are pushing for success in engineering biology
In October 2024, the government announced the launch of the Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO), which will be chaired by former Conservative science minister Lord David Willetts. The RIO will support innovative businesses in high-growth sectors by speeding up regulatory approvals and reducing "red tape". A priority area for the RIO is engineering biology, which includes products such as cell-cultivated meats.
The government outlined in its recent industrial strategy, that it plans to partner with the RIO to ensure the responsible adoption of engineering biology products and services by creating "a more supportive regulatory environment." However little further detail on how this will be achieved is not given in the strategy and so it remains to be seen whether any additional details will be announced towards the end of 2025.
FSA sandbox accelerates a safe path for cell-cultivated products
Cell-cultivated products (CCP) are still not available for consumers in the UK as they are yet to be deemed safe for human consumption by the Food Standards Agency (FSA); that is, they need to be approved as novel foods. The FSA's CCP sandbox is intended to provide structured, early dialogue with the regulators, helping applicants refine study plans, understand data gaps and reduce avoidable delays in the formal novel food authorisation process.
Industry has raised questions about whether the sandbox is meeting its goal of speeding up safe market access for innovative foods. However, recent reports have suggested that the sandbox appears to be working and is generating interest in this area. The sandbox has provided a space for collaboration between the FSA and businesses. It t allows businesses to share details about their processes and gain a better understanding of the FSA's expectations.
The key aim of sandbox participation is to clarify the path to market, but it does not replace the need for businesses to submit a full novel food authorisation with robust safety evidence. The intention in the UK is for the sandbox to enable quicker and easier CCP approvals, helping the UK to be a leader in this space, but its impact will depend on transparent criteria, measurable service standards and sustained funding and resourcing of the FSA.
It will be interesting to see how the sandbox’s first cohorts benefit from the programme. The FSA has committed to completing two CCP risk assessments within the sandbox's first two years. CCPs may, therefore, be on the UK market soon in the near future.
Please see our June Regulatory Outlook for more information.
Venture capital in future foods: key protections in articles of association
Future foods companies need to innovate fast, secure regulatory approvals and scale production, often across multiple funding rounds: balancing investor protections while maintaining key-personnel engagement and incentivisation is, therefore, critical.
A company's articles of association is one of the key documents used to achieve this balance. What are the core terms of this document, and how do they relate to the needs of future foods businesses?
