Italy Plans to Ban Cultivated Meat To ‘Safeguard’ Food Heritage

EAT

Apr 2

Cultivated meat - meat grown from animal cells rather than from a farmed animal - is one of the leading solutions to creating a more sustainable food system. But Italy’s rightwing government, backed by the country’s biggest farmer’s association, says it is a threat to the traditional meat industry and wants it outlawed.

The Italian government has introduced a draft law that would ban the production and marketing of cultivated meat products.

The draft law, which specifically mentions “meat which is the result of a cell cultivation process”, is said to include a fine of up to €60,000 ($65,220) for any violation of the proposed ban.

Both houses of parliament will now need to pass the bill. So far it has received support from Italy’s biggest farmers’ association, Coldiretti.

Italy’s move to ban the practice is “based on precautionary principles”, Orazio Schillaci, Italy’s health minister told the press, reports the Guardian. “[Because] there are no scientific studies yet on the effects of synthetic foods. We want to safeguard our nation’s heritage and our agriculture based on the Mediterranean diet.”

A cultivated meat burger like this one would be outlawed under Italy’s proposed draft law. Credit: Mosa Meat

But supporters of cultivated meat point out that the EU already has a regulatory process in place for confirming the safety of new foods. Before any cultivated meat product can be sold in Europe, it would need a thorough and evidence-based safety assessment by the European Food Safety Authority, a process which takes around at least 18 months.

“The passing of such a law would shut down the economic potential of this nascent field in Italy, holding back scientific progress and climate mitigation efforts, and limiting consumer choice,” said Alice Ravenscroft, Head of Policy at the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe.

“It could prevent Italian scientists from undertaking crucial work, and ban Italian cultivated meat startups from existing at all. Italy would be left behind as the rest of Europe and the world progresses towards a more sustainable and secure food system. And the 54% of Italians who already want to try cultivated meat would be banned from doing so.”

Cultivated meat can also include seafood too, like this salmon nigiri from Wildtype. Credit: Wildtype

Cultivated meat is projected to become a key solution in creating a more sustainable and ethical global food system. The process creates ‘real’ meat, but it is cultivated and grown directly from animal cells, rather than a farmed animal. This means that the food industry could theoretically eliminate the need to breed, raise, and slaughter millions of farmed animals around the world each year.

Peer-reviewed research is already reporting that cultivated meat could cause up to 92 percent less emissions than conventional beef. It could also reduce air pollution with meat production by up to 94 percent, and use up to 90 percent less land.

Outside of Italy, the World is Welcoming Cultivated Meat

GFI explains that the Italian government’s decision puts it at odds with the rest of Europe, where other governments are investing in cultivated meat. The Netherlands recently announced €60 million of government funding towards research and development of cultivated meat and precision fermentation. In the UK, its government announced a £16 million funding call for sustainable proteins, including cultivated meat, and the Spanish government invested €5.2 million in a project investigating the potential for cultivated meat to help prevent diet-related diseases.

In 2020, Singapore became the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval to a cultivated meat product, GOOD Meat’s cultivated chicken. Since its launch, the company’s chicken has featured on menus at fine dining establishments, popular hawker stalls, via the foodpanda delivery platform, and most recently at Huber’s Butchery, one of Singapore’s premier producers and suppliers of high-quality meats.

The United States became the second and latest country to grant approval for cultivated meat products, after both UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat successfully passed the FDA’s rigorous pre-market safety review, both within the last few months.

The two brands will now complete the remaining regulatory steps that will allow cultivated meat to be sold to consumers in the US market. Experts predict cultivated meat could become a $25 billion global industry by 2030.

In 2023 and beyond, Species Unite will continue to champion solutions including cultivated meat that can help transition the world away from animal products. Join our community by becoming a member today and check out our Future of Food podcast episodes to learn more about cellular agriculture.

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