Cultured meat, synthetic food ban is law

After the approval of the Senate, the Chamber also gave the green light to the law that prohibits the production and marketing of cultured meat and other synthetic food in Italy.

• The Chamber, after the Senate, approved the bill banning the production and marketing of synthetic food in Italy.
• The text is based on the precautionary principle and the objective is "to protect health and the Italian agri-food heritage".
• However, the value of the law remains to be understood if the European Union authorizes synthetic foods.

The no to synthetic food è law.After the approval of the bill al Senate last July 19th, November 16th also Room gave the green light to the measure with 159 votes in favour, 53 against and 34 abstentions.

What does the law that bans synthetic food in Italy say?

The text concerns the ban on producing and marketing in Italy cultured meat and other foods created in laboratories, specifically prohibits the production and placing on the market of "food and feed consisting of, isolated or produced from cell or tissue cultures deriving from vertebrate animals as well as prohibiting the denomination of meat for processed products containing vegetable proteins” and theobjective, as explained by the Ministry of Agriculture "is to ensure a maximum level of protection of human health and citizens' interests, as well as preserving the Italian agri-food heritage, as a set of products that have strategic relevance for the national interest" . The law is based on precautionary principle, also prohibits the meat sounding, i.e. the use of meat denominations for processed products containing vegetable proteins and provides administrative and disqualifying sanctions for those who transgress.

Lollobrigida:“A vanguard battle, like for GMOs”

The House vote came a few weeks after the rumors announcing it a withdrawal of the bill by the government in the absence of notification of the bill to the European Union:“Obviously we will notify this rule in Europe, as is standard practice:we believe there is nothing to fear – declared the agriculture minister Francesco Lollobrigida during the morning discussion in Montecitorio - But we are the Italian parliament and we regulate with regards to our people, the only subject I recognize to give answers to.In Europe we would like to convince other nations to make the same choices as Italy, we really don't want to get to the point of certifying these procedures for transforming cultivated food into something usable." He further added:“It comforts me that all the amendments on synthetic foods in Europe so far have been rejected by the majority and with Italy's fairly compact vote, so I hope that we will succeed in our vanguard battle, as we have already done with GMOs”.

Coldiretti's support and satisfaction for the ban on synthetic food

To support the bill during the discussion in the Chamber, a representation of farmers and breeders from Coldiretti gathered in Rome with banners that read "No to artificial food" to explain that "the products are born in the countryside and not in the laboratory". The mobilization against synthetic food began on November 10, 2022 precisely by Coldiretti - supported by environmental, organic farming and consumer associations - and ended with more 2 million signatures collected and which was followed, on March 28, by the presentation of the bill by the government.

The European question

Law approved, the European question remains.The paradox is that the ban - a unique case on the international scene - is preventive and concerns foods that have not yet been authorized inEuropean Union.However, if, in the future, the EU approved the marketing of cultured meat and synthetic food, Italy would not be able to ban it according to the principle of free movement of goods between member states. Particularly second Eleonora Evi, co-spokesperson for Green Europe, this provision "in reality will do nothing but push our country ever closer to a new infringement procedure for the ban on a product which, if approved by‘EFSA (the European food safety authority, ed.) will be able to circulate throughout Europe.And it will also force Italian entrepreneurs and research centers, who are working on this today, to stop and lose a great entrepreneurial and employment opportunity."

But the president of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini, just as Lollobrigida had done in the morning, hopes that the Italian preventive move will serve to avoid a future European authorization, or at least make it more stringent.“Now we have to bring this positive vote, in terms of debate, to the European Parliament,” Prandini said after the final vote.“One of the requests we make is to equate the authorizations, should they be issued, to those for pharmaceutical products and not to novel food.The health of our citizens is at stake."The idea, in practice, is to ask that any approval for cultured meat takes place not through EFSA, but for example through theEma, the drug agency, with a much more stringent process.