The Netherlands has become the first European country to allow cultivated meat and seafood tastings, even before an EU novel food approval. Today the Dutch government announced that the much-awaited tastings will soon take place under limited conditions.
“Consumers will now be able to experience cultivated meat products in Europe for the first time”
Although the first piece of cultivated meat was developed in the Netherlands, until now, it was illegal for anyone — even scientists — to taste it. But after this historic agreement, investors, partners, consumers, and scientists will soon taste Mosa Meat’s beef burgers, Meatable‘s cultivated pork, and future developments.
Krijn de Nood, CEO at Meatable, comments: “This is great news for the Netherlands. 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. We thank the ministries for their constructive collaboration and look forward to [inviting] the first people to try our sausages, dumplings, and pulled pork!”
A code of practice for tastings
The Dutch Government, in collaboration with Meatable, Mosa Meat, and sector representative HollandBIO, successfully created a ‘code of practice’ to make tastings possible in controlled environments. Cellular Agriculture Netherlands will ensure the code of practice is followed, including hiring experts to review requests from the companies that wish to carry out tastings.
This positive news comes just weeks after cultivated chicken was approved for sale in the USA and follows the Dutch Government’s €60 million initiative to support the development of cellular agriculture to make the country a global hub.
“…this development should strengthen confidence in this sector’s future”
Voting in favor
In 2022, the Dutch House of Representatives passed a motion with an overwhelming majority (14 of 17 voting political parties, including VVD, BBB, CDA, D66, Christen Unie, PvdA, GroenLinks, PvdD, and SP), eventually leading to this landmark agreement.
The motion, sponsored by members Tjeerd de Groot (D66) and Peter Valstar (VVD), requested the government to consult cellular agriculture producers to enable pre-approval tastings under controlled and safe conditions.
Maarten Bosch, CEO of Mosa Meat, said: “We thank all 123 members of the Tweede Kamer who voted in favor of finding a way 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 to educate key stakeholders about the role cellular agriculture can play in helping Europe meet our food sovereignty and sustainability goals.”
