The regulator’s crystal ball: How the FSA is preparing for the foods of 2035

In March 2026, the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland published a Thematic Report on Emerging Food Innovations, identifying the technologies most likely to generate food safety and regulatory requirements in Great Britain over the coming decade.

The report identifies the technologies most likely to generate food safety and regulatory needs in Great Britain over the coming decade.

What technologies are on the radar?

The report identifies eight technological areas likely to have the greatest impact on the food system:

• Controlled environment agriculture (CEA): or vertical farming, growing crops in climate-controlled indoor spaces where conditions are heavily monitored and nutrients are administered precisely.
• Precision and biomass fermentation: exploiting rapid microbial growth to produce protein-rich biomass for food.
• Cellular agriculture: including cell-cultivated foods that do not involve traditional farming such as rearing livestock or growing plants and grains.
• Edible insects: which may be sold as whole insects or used as ingredients, for example as powders added to familiar foods.
• Molecular farming: using plants or plant cells as tiny factories to make specific food ingredients such as proteins and enzymes.
• Gas fermentation: using microbes to convert captured carbon dioxide, hydrogen or other industrial gases into single cell proteins and other useful food ingredients.
• 3D food printing: building foods such as chocolate or mashed potato by layering edible ingredients from a printer.
• Reverse food manufacturing: taking nutrients back out of food by-products and turning them into new ingredients.

Emerging technologies such as molecular farming remain at an early stage, while reverse food manufacturing and 3D food printing are conceptual and sit on a longer-term watchlist.

Why this matters for industry

The report provides the clearest picture to date of how innovative food production systems are evolving and what this means for proportionate, future ready regulation. By setting out the regulatory implications in advance, it enables companies to plan long term research, manufacturing and investment strategies with greater certainty.

The regulatory framework taking shape

The report has been produced by the Market Authorisation Innovation Research Programme, a programme jointly delivered by the FSA and FSS and funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. The programme complements the Cell-Cultivated Products Regulatory Sandbox, launched in March 2025, which we talked about in Winter 2025 and Autum 2025 editions of Food for Thought.

Together with updated guidance, public consultations and strengthened business support services, the report forms part of a broader effort to ensure the UK remains a trusted innovation friendly environment for companies developing new food technologies.

Evidence collected from the public through focus groups and surveys also informed the report's development, ensuring that regulatory planning reflects the questions and concerns that matter most to consumers.

What businesses should do

Businesses working in or planning to enter any of these emerging categories should engage with the FSA's Innovative Food Guidance Hub, where the published reports and guidance for businesses are available. The FSA and FSS have been clear that early engagement with regulators, well ahead of formal applications, is central to their approach. Businesses that engage now will be better placed to navigate the regulatory landscape as these technologies move closer to market.

Our food and drink team will watch this space with interest and update you with developments in future editions of the Food for Thought newsletter.