Italy bans production and sale of cultured meat

Italy thus becomes the first country in the European Union to ban cultured meat, produced in the laboratory from animal tissue cells.

Italy on Thursday banned the production and sale of cultured meat, citing health concerns and the need to preserve its breeders, even though the sale of this product is not yet authorized in the EU.

Italy thus becomes the first country in the European Union to ban cultured meat, produced in the laboratory from animal tissue cells.

The law, approved by the lower house of Parliament after receiving the green light from the Senate, also prohibits describing proteins of plant origin as “meat”, under penalty of heavy fines.

Authorized in Singapore and the United States

Many companies around the world are marketing plant-based meat alternatives, touted as a solution to ethical issues surrounding factory farming and environmental concerns.

Livestock farming is in fact one of the main causes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Cultured meat is currently allowed for sale in Singapore and the United States but not in the EU, although European companies have raised funds to fund research in this area.

The EU considers cultured meat to be a “novel food” and, as such, like any new product, it should be subject to marketing authorization.

Italian Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida said cultured meat “interrupts the virtuous relationship between land, man and work which, for millennia, has accompanied us and allowed us to maintain the earth”.

The International Organization for Animal Protection, an Italian NGO, however, considered this law unnecessary.

“This ban is completely unnecessary today, since cultured meat has not yet been approved for human consumption in Europe and therefore cannot be marketed,” she said.