WHO Teams Up With NTU to Find Fast Safety Tests for Novel Foods

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has teamed up with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to find new, faster ways to test for the safety of novel foods and reduce the use of animal testing.

- Shabana Begum

This includes placing human liver and intestinal tissues on a device to recreate how key organs will respond to newly developed foods like cell-based meats and microbes.

Once NTU has optimised the food safety methods, it will work with WHO to standardise these methods globally and help establish a regulatory framework for future foods.

Animals, such as mice, must be exposed to the food being tested over prolonged periods, so they may need to be kept for one or two years, explained Dr Moez Sanaa, unit head of the Standards and Scientific Advice on Food and Nutrition at WHO.

In addition to ethical concerns, animal testing is also costly and involves a long process, which prolongs the food's approval, he added. Some experiment results may also be unreliable because animals are biologically different from humans.

Dr Sanaa was speaking to the media on June 18 after WHO signed a three-year partnership with NTU's Future Ready Food Safety Hub – an alliance by the university, A*Star and the Singapore Food Agency (SFA). The signing took place at a workshop focused on the safety of future foods, held at Royal Plaza on Scotts.