First application for approval of cell-cultured meat in Europe: ProVeg reacts
Food tech company Aleph Farms has announced that it has applied to sell the world's first cell-cultured beef steaks in Switzerland.1 Mathilde Alexandre, Corporate and Institutional Engagement Manager at ProVeg International, calls the move extremely encouraging.
"The regulatory filing shows that cellular agriculture is rapidly evolving and moving closer to commercialization," Alexandre says.
Last month, U.S. regulators approved two companies to sell cell-cultured chicken in restaurants. In Singapore, a so-called hybrid product containing cell-cultured animal fat has already been on the market for two years.2
Government support crucial for market development
"For cell-cultured meat to help drive the transformation of our food system, European countries must actively encourage further applications for approval. The Netherlands has already taken a step in the right direction," Alexandre continued.
Last week, the Dutch government approved an agreement to allow pre-market tastings of cell-cultured foods.3
Technology promises to protect resources
Alexandre also points to the new technology's great sustainability potential: "Land that has been used for animal husbandry could be used for reforestation, biodiversity protection and renaturation, thanks to cellular agriculture. All these measures allow nature to regenerate and absorb more CO 2."
Using renewable energy, cell-cultured beef can reduce CO2 emissions by an estimated 92 percent compared to conventionally produced products. Land requirements would decrease by about 95 percent and water requirements by about 78 percent.4
In 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) therefore identified cellular agriculture, along with plant-based diets, as an important way to limit pressure on our finite natural resources.5
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1 Business Wire (2023): Aleph Farms Submits First Ever Application for Cultivated Meat in Europe, published 07/26/2023. Online at: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230726122722/en/Aleph-Farms-Submits-First-Ever-Application-for-Cultivated-Meat-in-Europe
2 Spiegel (2020): Chicken nuggets from the bioreactor - Laboratory-grown meat approved for consumption for the first time, published on 02.12.2020. Online at: https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/technik/singapur-erstmals-fleisch-aus-dem-labor-zugelassen-a-7c424784-0e43-4889-94df-5f5d63039ca3
3 Foodnavigator (2023): 'A great achievement for the Dutch government': First Member State approves pre-market tastings of cultured meat, published 19.07.2023. Online at: https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2023/07/19/cultivated-meat-tastings-formally-approved-in-the-netherlands
4 CE Delft (2021): LCA of cultivated meat - Future projections for different scenarios, published February 2021. online at: https://ce.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/CE_Delft_190107_LCA_of_cultivated_meat_Def.pdf
5 IPCC (2022): Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change - Working Group III contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Online at: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_FullReport.pdf
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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