The controversial Italian bill which aims to prohibit the sale of foods from cellular agriculture and 'meat sounding' - i.e. the reference to names of meats and their derivatives to designate foods of a different nature (i.e. 'plant-based foods') - collects a series of negative comments from stakeholders in Europe and Italy.
1) Cellular agriculture and 'meat sounding', the Italian bill under the EU lens
The Italian Government – famous for the systematic failure to dutifully notify Brussels of draft laws in the agri-food sector (1) – has finally followed the procedures, at least once. By notifying the European Commission of a bill dictated by Coldiretti - and acclaimed by the government majority, with the fearful abstention of the Democratic Party - aimed at:
– ban the marketing of 'synthetic foods', in the crude and confused narrative of Coldiretti (and the government) which instead supports the 'deregulation' of new GMOs and strenuously opposes the reduction of pesticides in agriculture, (2)
– prohibit the use of names of meats and their derivatives (e.g. burgers, sausages, frankfurters) on the labels and advertising of foods of non-animal origin. As France tried to do, with a decree now being examined by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). (3)
2) Notification procedure in Brussels
The draft law Italian in question was notified to Brussels - pursuant to EU Directive 2015/1535, in the TRIS (Technical Regulations Information System) system - on 27 August 2023. (4) The iter legis must therefore remain suspended until the 'standstill' expires period', on 30 October 2023.
The Commission by that date it will be able to request more information from Italy, extend the suspension period, consider the opinions of the Member States and express an opinion on the (il)legitimacy of the national regulatory scheme. Stakeholders in turn can offer contributions.
3) The first contributions from stakeholders
The first comments of the stakeholders on the bans that the Italian legislator would like to introduce are caustic. The Italian bill, as already mentioned on our GIFT website, (2) is in fact:
– in clear contrast with European Union law, in the part in which the Italian legislator claims competences in the field of novel foods, the regulation of which has been harmonized for a quarter of a century, (5)
– of dubious legitimacy, pending the ruling of the CJEU, (3) in the part in which it aims to frustrate the legitimate expectations of operators who have been marketing veg foods with generic names in the EU for decades (e.g. burgers).
3.1) Cellular Agriculture Europe
Cellular Agriculture Europe – association representing cellular agriculture operators in Europe – focuses on the most naive points of the Italian bill, where:
- the absence of 'specific legislation in the EU' is stated, ignoring the existence of the Novel Food Regulation (EU) No 2015/2283 which instead provides for a specific authorization procedure for novel foods, following a scientific evaluation of their safety ,
- it is unknown that cellular agriculture finds application in the plant and fungal kingdoms, as well as in the animal kingdom. The first favorable opinion from EFSA concerns the safety for human consumption of apple biomass developed in this way, (6)
- the aim is to ban the production and sale in Italy of food products whose free circulation in the single market, following authorization as novel food in the EU, cannot be hindered. Regardless of the theories of the ministers on duty.
3.2) BEUC
BEUC – the European Consumers Association – draws attention to the growing consumer awareness of the negative impacts on the environment and public health associated with intensive production and consumption of meat. IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has highlighted a high potential for mitigating these impacts through the adoption of diets in line with dietary recommendations, with a greater content of plant foods. (7)
'However, for this to happen, a range of attractive, accessible and affordable alternative sources of protein need to be available.' And the European regulation on novel foods - in addition to guaranteeing compliance with the precautionary principle, on which European legislation in the sector is based (except for derailing, when it comes to pesticides), – provides for 'additional information on the label' on the nature of novel foods.
Customers respondents in a survey conducted by BEUC in 2019, on the other hand, are largely in favor (42,4% in EU, 47% in Italy) of the use of names such as 'burger' or 'sausages' on meat-based products vegetable, provided that they are clearly identifiable as vegetarian and/or vegan. (8) On average, only one in five European consumers (20,4%) believe that the use of 'meat' names should not be allowed on vegetarian/vegan products.
3.3) Being Animals
The association Italian 'Essere Animali', boasting over 800.000 supporters, does not indulge in ethical issues but rather in the obstacle to research, innovation and economic growth in a promising sector that responds, above all, to consumer demands.
IPCC, in the Sixth Climate Change Assessment Report (2022), recognizes that emerging food technologies – such as precision fermentation and plant-based foods – may promise substantial reductions in direct greenhouse gas emissions in food production.
The 'precautionary principle' evoked by the Italian Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci to 'safeguard the national heritage', it is worth adding, has nothing to do with the principle crystallized in the TFEU (Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, art. 191).
3.4) Italian Food Union
Italian Food Union, the largest association of the food industries in Italy, in turn intervenes to state that:
- 'overall, the companies offer a very varied offering in terms of products, including a wide range of plant-based products’,
– these products derive from common agricultural raw materials such as legumes, cereals, seeds, vegetables and/or their protein isolates, without resorting to cellular agriculture,
– industries have marketed 'plant-based foods' for decades, offering consumers transparent information on their characteristics,
– 80% of Italian consumers, according to a recent survey by AstraRicerche for UIF, read labels carefully and are well able to distinguish products,
– the European Parliament has already rejected the proposal to ban 'meat sounding' which therefore must be removed from the Italian bill. (9)
3.5) Jeremy Coller Foundation
Jeremy Coller Foundation (UK) operates in the two strategic areas of management education and animal welfare (as well as public and environmental health, in a 'One Health' perspective). With the aim of reducing the pressure on intensive farming through the Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return (FAIRR) initiative.
The foundation insists on the need to respond to an increase in global food demand, estimated at approximately +56% between 2010 and 2050. 'New technologies and methods of food production will therefore be increasingly necessary to guarantee everyone access to healthy and sustainable diets'. Plant-based food, fermentation (i.e. mycoproteins), cellular agriculture.
3.6) European Vegetarian Union
European Vegetarian Union highlights how the use of names such as 'vegetarian burger' or 'vegan tofu sausage' for foods with plant proteins has been consolidated for decades, without any misunderstanding whatsoever. And paradoxically, using new names – eg 'vegetable disc' instead of 'vegetable burger' – would only complicate the purchasing process for consumers.
The strategy 'Farm to Fork' after all states that 'moving to a more plant-based diet, with less red and processed meat and more fruit and vegetables, will reduce not only the risks of life-threatening diseases, but also the environmental impact of the food system'. A goal that can only be achieved if consumers are able to quickly and easily identify plant-based alternatives.
4) Provisional conclusions
The Italian institutions 'Coldirette' stand out once again for having wasted public resources in an inapplicable bill as it is contrary to European law, as well as common sense. At the expense of taxpayers and the reliability of a country system that rejects rather than attracts investments.
Dario Dongo
Footnotes
(1) Dario Dongo (2019). Food Regulations and Enforcement in Italy. Reference Module in Food Science. Elsevier, pp. 1–5. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100596-5.21172-
(2) Dario Dongo. Italy, the Senate approves the law banning cellular agriculture and 'meat sounding'. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(3) "Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Meat sounding, the word to the EU Court of Justice. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(4) 'Provisions on the prohibition of the production and marketing of food and feed consisting of, isolated from or produced from cell cultures or tissues derived from vertebrate animals and on the prohibition of the designation as meat (…)'. https://tinyurl.com/5579vav3 Notification No 2023/0469/IT (Italy)
(5) Novel Food Regulation (EC) No 258/97, repealed by the subsequent Reg. (EU) No 2015/2283
(6) EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens (NDA)Safety of apple fruit cell culture biomass as a novel food pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283. EFSA Journal Journal 2023;21(7):8065. doi: 0.2903/j.efsa.2023.8065
(7) Dario Dongo. Land grabbing and climate change, the 2019 IPCC report. Egalité. 14.8.19
(8) Dario Dongo. Vegetarian and vegan, another bluff from Brussels. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(9) Dario Dongo. 'Carne vegan', meat sounding. Great show in the European Parliament. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(10) Dario Dongo. State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023. Report FAO et al. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(11) Zane Swanson, Caitlin Welsh, and Joseph Majkut (2023). Mitigating Risk and Capturing Opportunity: The Future of Alternative Proteins. CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) https://tinyurl.com/57742pke
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
