Aussies asked to allow sale of lab-grown quail meat – would you eat it?
This is the first cell-cultured food application in Australia to be assessed.
Do you think lab-grown meat should be allowed in Australia?
That’s the question the nation’s food regulator is asking, as it seeks public comment on whether it should permit what's being called "cultured quail meat" to be sold to consumers.
The six-week consultation period follows a decision by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) to progress the food to the next stage of assessment, after it found it is “genetically stable” and has low microbiological risk. The application to produce the meat was made by Australian-based Vow Group which sensationally created a meatball using genetic data from an extinct wooly mammoth in March.
In its application to FSANZ, Vow argued Australia and New Zealand will need to develop new technologies to meet a predicted 40 per cent jump in global demand for protein by 2050.
It said approval of its quail product would help make the nations world leaders in its production and that traditional farming is threatened by climate change and disease.
If the application is approved it would be the first cell-cultured meat to be allowed for sale in Australia.
Lab meat tastes almost the same as slaughtered animals
Singapore became the first jurisdiction to approve cellular meat in 2020 and the product is now widely accepted by the general public. But not all country’s are accepting of the product — Italy’s rightwing government has banned lab-grown food in November.
Lab-produced meat is considered animal friendly, as it doesn’t require killing an animal to produce it. Vats of meat can be grown using just a few cells taken from a living creature. And when renewable energy is used, the carbon footprint is much lower than traditional farming.
Earlier this year, Yahoo News Australia attended a cellular agriculture conference in Sydney where industry insiders discussed the public’s concerns about eating meat and dairy created by food scientists. Research found half of Australians and New Zealanders surveyed doesn’t want to eat it and 30 per cent had serious misgivings about its safety.
Despite its production method, when Yahoo reporter Brianne Tolj tasted a dumpling containing cultivated pork she said it tasted just like meat.
Creating mince, or even milk and ice cream, is easier for manufacturers to produce as complex meat cuts remain difficult to achieve.
How lab-meat could help the world
There has been significant investment in the sector in Australia, the United States and Israel, with some funds coming from traditional agriculture companies. Now the race is on to produce cost-efficient, commercially viable amounts of food.
With the world’s population continuing to grow, there is not enough available land to feed them using livestock. Raising cattle and sheep requires large amounts of pasture to raise them on, as well as huge amounts of soy and other grains to fatten them.
Creating Vow's new meat product involves taking connective tissues known as fibreplasts from the embryos of Japanese quail.
Approving it will require an amendment to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, to permit cultured quail cells as a “novel food” — a category of foods that don't have a history of human consumption.
Independent think tank Food Frontier called FSANZ’s decision to open the Vow product to public consultation an “exciting step”.
“Once cultivated meat technology advances to a scale that is required for commercial viability, it promises to be a viable way to help meet the increasing global demand for meat,” its director Dr Simon Eassom said.
Submissions to FSANZ can be made here.
Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? Get our new weekly newsletter showcasing the week’s best stories.
