FEASTS
- Type
- Projects
- Location
- Lincoln, United States
- Industries
- Alternative proteins, Consumer health & consumer effects, Food safety & quality, Supply chain monitoring & traceability, Food ingredients & products, Cellular agriculture
- Domains
- Processed food products, Meat & poultry products, Fish & seafood products, Proteins, Ingredients
- Technologies
- Decision support software, Smart & digital
About FEASTS
FEASTS (Fostering European Cellular Agriculture for Sustainable Transition Solutions) is a collaborative EU research programme focused on cultured meat and cultured seafood. It aims to build a comprehensive, independent knowledge base on these technologies and their role in the food system, with attention to sustainability, ethics, nutrition, food safety, regulation, and socio-economic impacts.
The project is designed to support informed policy and decision-making in the EU. It uses a food-systems approach to examine how cultured meat and seafood might contribute to a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable protein supply, while also identifying the technical, regulatory, and societal conditions needed for responsible development and implementation.
Core Values
- Ethics: FEASTS states that ethical principles guide its research and that it seeks to protect the rights, values, and interests of partners and stakeholders.
- Sustainability: The project is explicitly oriented toward identifying the most sustainable solutions and reducing environmental impacts across the food system.
- Inclusivity: FEASTS emphasizes the inclusion of perspectives from all food-system actors, including those who may be affected by the transition.
- Objectivity and transparency: The consortium highlights objectivity, open science, and transparent, independently verified research as central to its approach.
Unique Aspects
- EU-funded mission-led consortium: FEASTS is funded under the EU Horizon Europe call HORIZON CL6-2023-FARM2FORK-01, giving it a public-interest research mandate focused on future protein systems.
- Food-systems framing: Rather than studying cultured meat and seafood in isolation, FEASTS evaluates them within broader food-system dynamics, including value chains, business models, and just transition considerations.
- Strong regulatory and safety focus: The project explicitly works on food safety, nutrition, regulatory assessment, and liaison with EFSA, including analysis of labelling and traceability needs.
- Broad international consortium: FEASTS brings together universities, research institutes, NGOs, and industry partners across Europe and beyond, including partners active in cellular agriculture, alternative proteins, and consumer advocacy.