Safety Assessment of Emerging Food Technologies: Novel and Genome-Edited Foods

Novel foods are increasingly being developed as strategic alternatives to support the transition toward more sustainable food systems and to overcome structural constraints inherent in conventional food-production paradigms. In particular, foods derived from biotechnological approaches represent substantial technological innovation and offer considerable potential societal benefits. However, these innovations involve production methods and biological characteristics that differ fundamentally from those of traditional foods, thereby necessitating heightened safety scrutiny. Although food-safety assessment frameworks have progressed through the accumulation of scientific knowledge and regulatory experience, they remain limited in their ability to fully capture the uncertainties associated with newly developed foods. These limitations are further intensified by the lack of international consistency and harmonization in national safety assessment practices, resulting in regulatory uncertainty that delays both acceptance and market expansion of innovative food products. In this study, novel foods produced using advanced technologies, including cell-based, precision-fermented, and genome-edited foods, are examined with particular emphasis on their production processes and key safety-relevant assessment elements. Furthermore, the core components currently considered in novel food safety evaluations are critically analyzed, and directions for the development of safety assessment frameworks that more accurately reflect the characteristics of technology-based foods are proposed. Through this analysis, the present study seeks to contribute to the scientific assurance of safety for future foods and to the establishment of internationally harmonized assessment criteria.