Dutch go first: pre-approval tastings of cultivated meat & seafood in the Netherlands
It is just announced that it will soon be possible to taste farmed meat and seafood in the Netherlands under controlled conditions. The Dutch government, in collaboration with cultured meat producers Meatable and Mosa Meat, and industry representative HollandBIO, has successfully developed a 'code of practice' that will allow tastings in controlled environments.
Mosa Meat and Meatable welcome the agreement with the Dutch government to conduct pre-approval tastings of cultured meat and seafood in the Netherlands. This historic agreement makes the Netherlands the first country in the European Union to allow pre-approval tastings of foods grown directly from animal cells, prior to EU novel food approval. It follows the government’s ‘National Growth Fund’, which committed €60 million to build a robust cellular agriculture ecosystem to make the Netherlands a global hub for the emerging technology.
The organisation set up to implement the National Growth Fund plan, Cellular Agriculture Netherlands, will be responsible for implementing the code of practice, including hiring a panel of experts to evaluate requests from companies to conduct tastings of cultured meat and seafood.
The code of practice was created following an intervention by the Dutch House of Representatives in 2022. A motion sponsored by MPs Tjeerd de Groot (D66) and Peter Valstar (VVD) called on the government to enter into consultations with Dutch cellular farming producers to allow for pre-approval tastings under controlled and safe conditions. The motion was supported by 14 out of 17 voting political parties, including the VVD, BBB, CDA, D66, Christen Unie, PvdA, GroenLinks, PvdD, SP and others.
Krijn de Nood, CEO of Meatable, commented: “This is great news for the Netherlands. We know that cultured meat can make a significant contribution to reducing climate change. By making it possible to taste cultured meat, the Netherlands continues to lead the way in Europe and beyond. For Meatable, this means that we can give consumers the opportunity to taste and experience our products, and use their feedback to make our products even better. Our goal is to make tasty cultured meat, indistinguishable from traditional meat, available to everyone, without harming people, animals or our planet.
Maarten Bosch, CEO of Mosa Meat, added: “We thank all 127 members of the Tweede Kamer who voted in favour of finding a way to make this possible, and Minister Kuipers, Minister Adema and their teams for their professionalism and cooperation in making it happen. Mosa Meat will use these controlled tastings to gather invaluable feedback on our products and to educate key stakeholders on the role that cellular agriculture can play in helping Europe meet its food sovereignty and sustainability goals.”
In light of the progress made in the Netherlands, the German biotech organisation BIO Deutschland is calling for a significant improvement in the framework conditions for the development, production, testing and approval of these novel foods in the EU and Germany, and has today published a position paper on the subject.
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