Cultured meat and seafood can soon be tasted under limited conditions in The Netherlands. In collaboration with cultivated meat producers Meatable and Mosa Meat and sector representative HollandBIO, the Dutch government successfully created a ‘code of practice’ to make tastings possible in controlled environments.
- Tastings of cultured meat are possible thanks to new legislation in the Netherlands.
- Mosa Meat and Meatable welcome the decision.
- Cultivated meat production can produce up to 93% fewer greenhouse gasses and use 95% less land and 78% less water.
This agreement makes the Netherlands the first country in the European Union to make pre-approval tastings of food grown directly from animal cells possible, even before an EU novel food approval. It follows the government’s ‘National Growth Fund’ committing €60 million to build a robust cellular agriculture ecosystem with the aim “to make the Netherlands a global hub for this technology”. The organization created to implement the National Growth Fund plan, Cellular Agriculture Netherlands, will have responsibility for implementing the code of practice, including hiring a panel of experts to evaluate requests by companies to conduct tastings of cultivated meat and seafood.
“This is great news for the Netherlands”, says Krijn de Nood, CEO at Meatable. “We know cultivated meat can significantly help reduce climate impact. By enabling the tasting of cultivated meat, the Netherlands maintains its pioneering role in Europe and beyond. For Meatable, this means that we can allow consumers to taste and experience our products and improve them with their feedback. Our goal is to make tasty cultivated meat indistinguishable from traditional meat available to everyone without harming people, animals or our planet.”
Maarten Bosch, CEO of Mosa Meat, calls this step “another proof point” that the Netherlands is a global leader in agriculture and food innovation. “We thank all 123 members of the Tweede Kamer who voted to make this possible and Minister Kuipers, Minister Adema, and their teams for being professional and collaborative in getting it done. Mosa Meat will use these controlled tastings to gather invaluable feedback on our products and educate key stakeholders about cellular agriculture’s role in helping Europe meet our food sovereignty and sustainability goals.”
Meatable and Mosa Meat
Meatable is an innovative Dutch food company aiming to deliver, at scale, cultivated meat that looks like, tastes like, and has the nutritional profile of traditional meat. Its proprietary opti-oxTM technology enables Meatable to produce meat rapidly, sustainably, and without harming animals. The company was founded in 2018.
Mosa Meat is a global food technology company pioneering a cleaner, kinder way of making real beef. Its founders introduced the world’s first cultivated beef hamburger in 2013 by growing it directly from cow cells. Founded in 2016, Mosa Meat is now scaling up production of the same beef that people love, but in a way that is better for people, animals, and the planet.
Cultivated meat
According to an independent Life Cycle Analysis, cultivated meat production is projected to produce up to 93% fewer greenhouse gasses, use 95% less land, and 78% less water when compared to industrial meat production. The automated process through which cultivated meat is produced, and the sterile environment of its manufacturing, can drastically reduce the use of antibiotics and the risk for pathogens, contaminants, and foodborne illnesses associated with concentrated and intensive animal farming.
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