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Cattle Australia fires up over lack of progress on lab-grown labelling laws

Beef Central 15/01/2025

Australian food labelling standards and how they should apply to so-called “fake meats” are again in the sights of Australia’s peak cattle producer body.

Sydney-based manufacturer Vow has applied to Australia’s food safety regulator seeking regulatory approval for “cultured quail cells” to be used as a novel food ingredient in food products in Australia.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has been undertaking public consultation in response to the application, with public submissions closing last  Friday.

Australia’s cattle producer representative body Cattle Australia has hit out at the process today, saying the regulations proposed by FSANZ provide no reassurance that lab-grown proteins are safe for consumers and the environment, or that the labelling requirements will avoid misleading consumers.

Cattle Australia is also dissatisfied that the proposed regulations lack clear labelling requirements in apparent defiance of the recommendations of a Federal Senate inquiry.

In February 2022, a Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee inquiry chaired by Senator Susan McDonald recommended new laws prohibiting non-conventional meat products from using meat related terms or images of animals in product names or labelling.

“Lab-grown proteins must be held to the same food safety, environmental and labelling standards as real products like beef,” CA Chief Executive Dr Chris Parker said in a media release issued today.

“The processes and ingredients used to produce these products are often ‘commercial in confidence’ so it is very unclear what is actually in this stuff.

“The FSANZ framework fails to provide the detail consumers and industry are looking for as to how fake foods will be labelled, which goes against the recommendations of the 2022 Senate Rural and Regional Affairs Committee inquiry.

“If the pathway set out by FSANZ is followed, novel foods may only have to be described as ‘cell-cultured’ or ‘cell-cultivated’, which doesn’t adequately describe to consumers that they are in fact eating fake meat.”

CA has argued that minimum labelling standards for plant-based or lab-grown proteins should prohibit any reference to animal food products, including the words meat, beef, lamb and goat.

“We strongly believe that the use of livestock images on plant or synthetic protein packaging or marketing materials should also be outlawed as it is a deliberate deception of consumers designed to dupe them into believing they are eating something that they are not,” Dr Parker said.

“The use of the word beef and images of cattle on fake foods has been proven to be confusing to consumers, and actually weakens the value of the real thing.

“Beef should be defined in law as only including products derived from actual livestock raised by cattle producers.”

The Federal Government has faced criticism for continuing to embark on assessments of “fake meat” products while failing to adopt the 2022 senate committees recommendations.

Vow lays off staff

Meanwhile, the startup at the centre of the FSANZ application is laying off more than 30 percent of its workers.

According to the Australian Financial Review, Vow staff were told on Friday that the reduction will involve 25 staff, shrinking the company’s total workforce to 65 employees.

Vow has raised more than US$50 million(AUD$80 million) from investors and venture capital funds to develop a range of lab-grown cell-based animal products, some of which it now has approval to serve in high-end restaurants in Asia.

However it is still awaiting regulatory approval to serve its products in Australia.

Mr Peppou told the AFR the decision to lay off staff was “painful” but necessary to ensure the longer-term prospects of the company.

Given the complexity and novelty of the regulatory process for cultured meat, it had taken far longer than initially expected to secure regulatory approval in the markets which Vow has targeted, he said.

“The reality is that in order for Vow to continue to grow and thrive, we must get leaner and focus our entire efforts on activities that put our products into more markets and onto more consumers’ plates,” he said.

 

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Comments

  1. Val Dyer, 15/01/2025

    I feel sorry for the Vow company investors who have been influenced to support the development of this product.
    Destined to fail, as Australians prefer naturally produced meat.

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