We look forward with (relative) anxiety to fake meat, or clean meat. The laboratory one, to understand each other. But the bureaucracy of the European Union and the experiments of other countries suggest that in Italy we will not soon bite into cruelty free animal meat.
When does “real” fake meat arrive? Vegetable “meat” is already a reality, impossible burgers have been on the shelves of our supermarkets for some time, and we have explained at length what is inside . But speaking of alternative proteins, there is a product that, even if it looks similar, is the polar opposite of plant-based meat: cultured meat , or clean meat , which is obtained from animal cells – which remain alive and do not suffer. – multiplied in the laboratory .
There is a lot to say about the peculiarities and the differences , but here we are interested in a practical difference: the first category of products is at the final stage of marketing, the second is so far behind that it is practically impossible to find. Except in Singapore, where lab-grown meat was licensed at the end of 2020 and is now being sold. The reasons for this difference? Certainly the initial production difficulties. But now the globe is teeming with companies and start-ups that grow meat (and even fish) in bioreactors: from America to Asia, from Holland to Israel, and there is one in Italy too, it’s called Bruno Celland was born from the collaboration between the University of Trento, the Trentino Innovation Hub and a private investor from the food industry. The question then arises: when does it also come to us?
There are no certainties, but we can make assumptions, a bit like we did for insects , the process of which is already underway at the EU institutions and is passing one phase after another . We need to consider the state of the art, and standard approval procedures. In fact, once they have achieved the goal from a technological point of view – otherwise, what we are talking about – companies have to overcome other obstacles, of a different nature: scalability, i.e. production in marketable quantities. and at affordable costs; consumer acceptance; approval by the competent authorities.
The procedure for novel foods in Europe
The first aspect depends on the companies, of course, and many are well advanced. Dutch company Mosa Meat, founded by one of the pioneers of cultured meat research, said it was aiming for Singapore and Europe to launch its first products. And other European start-ups are also at an advanced stage, such as Blue Biosciences , Mirai , CellulaREvolution . Habit and public acceptance are those mysterious variables, which can seem immovable for years and then change in a short time.: and then they are presuppositions, of course, of commercialization, but they can also be consequences. In fact, according to many operators in the sector, the obstacle or in any case the foreseeable longest phase is the bureaucratic one . At a conference the majority (58%) expressed the opinion that it will take between three and five years. And so also thinks David Brandes, managing director of the Belgian company Piece of Meat , which does not process the final product but grows fats of various origins – beef, chicken, goose – in order to one day sell them to meat producers in the laboratory: one of the problems what gives cultured meat is in fact that it is too lean and too uniform, since it is developed from muscle cells.
On the Food Navigator website he explained why: in Europe, food like meat in the laboratory falls under the discipline of novel foods , just like insects. They are the foods that, being new and never used by man, must be checked and pass a series of checks before they can be sold. The procedure is complex: first we need a technical opinion from Efsa, the European Food Safety Authority, and the times are around 9 months. Then the ball goes to the Commission, the deadline is again 9 months; but it must be said that at every stage, additions, tests, specifications, further documents may be required, and frequently are. Each stop adds about 6 months, so the bill is soon done: from 24 to 30 months, two and a half years, which however would start from the submission of the request. And since there hasn’t been any submissions so far, and it doesn’t even seem imminent, the 3-5 years mentioned above are easily reached.
Bruno Cell comes to the same conclusions when we were asked. Lisa Ceroni, expert in nutrition and food innovation, explains in detail: “As regards the procedure for the approval of the trade of cultured meat in Europe, this depends above all on the method of production of the meat used: if it involves genetic modifications, the product finished will be regulated by the rules relating to GMOs ( Regulation EU 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and feed ). Alternatively, cultured meat obtained without genetic modifications would be regulated by the novel food legislation ( Regulation EU 2015/2283 on Novel Foods ). In both cases, procedures lasting several months are envisaged, which can be extended if further scientific evidence is required, for example. In addition, a risk assessment by EFSA is almost always required. Based on the above, it could be expected that cultured meat could be approved and put on the market in Europe within a few years ”.
The hope, as the CEO of Spanish BioTech Foods Iñigo Charola said, is that the recent change to EFSA’s guidelines are preparatory to a change in methodology , if not mentality: if a dialogue is established between the company and the institution in the pre-submission phase, the company making the request can already respond to all requests and fill in all the boxes, without re-mailings and subsequent waste of time.
Meat grown in other countries
But in short, something tells me that we will not be the first to taste real but fake meat. More likely to take place in the US, already home to many of the most advanced companies in the field: Memphis Meat, BlueNalu , and of course Eat Just , the only one in the world that is currently selling clean meat to the public. Founder and CEO Josh Tetrick said in an interview that there is a good chance they will get the authorization (implying in the US?) Within two years, “hopefully this year”. And Californian BlueNalu also announced the launch for the second half of 2021, but without specifying where.
Or, next could be Israel , The Spoon speculates . A small state that pushes a lot on technological research, and already has a number of firsts. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the first head of government in the world to try cultured meat last December, declaring that the country would become “a forge for meat and alternative proteins”. Israel also holds the record for the world’s first restaurant serving cultured meat: The Chicken. But how, hadn’t the sale been authorized only in Singapore? In fact, the Tel Aviv restaurant does not sell it: in exchange, it asks those who eat it to provide a detailed opinion and fill out a questionnaire. A kind of continuous focus group, an open-door survey on consumer tastes: this is the idea of the company behind it, SuperMeat .
Aleph Farms, Future Meat, MeaTech 3D : these are other Israeli start-ups, listed on the stock exchange at home. The latest is also intending to go public in the US, which gives some clues to the market it is aiming for. And also in the United States, Future Meat has already announced that it has planned the launch in 2022. In short, as William Gibson said, the future has already arrived, only it is not equally distributed.
