(P30-006-24) Identifying Nutritional Considerations to Inform Safety Assessments of Foods Derived From Cellular Agriculture: A Scoping Review Protocol

Objectives: Cellular agriculture is an emerging field in food innovation that has gained the attention of the scientific community, food industry, and regulators around the world. This scoping review aims to systematically identify and summarize existing knowledge on nutritional aspects of foods derived from cellular agriculture to characterize related hazards to consumer health, and to highlight knowledge gaps in this area.

Methods: This scoping review will be conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). The review aims to explore the nutritional quality of foods derived by cellular agriculture. Review questions relate to (i) the volume of scientific literature in this area (ii) the nutritional aspects covered by the research, and (iii) any knowledge gaps. With the support of a research librarian, search strategies are developed to identify relevant publications from electronic databases and the grey literature. This review will include scientific publications (peer-reviewed journal articles; reports from regulatory, scientific, or non-governmental bodies) discussing nutritional considerations concerning cell-derived human milk analogues and foods containing cultured plant or animal cells. Publications will be screened and selected by two independent reviewers. Data extraction will be performed by one reviewer using a pre-piloted extraction template, and verified by a second. The data extracted will focus on publication source, type of product, nutritional considerations, and research gaps identified.

Results: The process of study selection will be reported in a PRISMA-ScR flow diagram. Results will be presented in tables and figures and described in detail, including a narrative summary of the findings and how they relate to the review questions.

Conclusions: The findings of this scoping review will inform and strengthen Health Canada’s nutritional quality assessments of novel foods derived from cellular agriculture. Identified research gaps will provide opportunities for future research in this area.

Funding Sources: Internal funding-Health Canada