Lab meat regulations: Comparing Israel to Europe — What works best?

Flora Southey | Food Navigator | February 22, 2023

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[Two] regions are well-known for their thriving cultivated meat ecosystems — the European Union and Israel — but neither has put products on the market. How do these systems work? And what needs to change to get cultivated meat on their consumers’ plates?

Israel is a hotbed of cultivated meat activity, with three of the first eight cultivated meat companies in the world hailing from the Middle Eastern country: Aleph Farms, SuperMeat, and Believer Meat (formerly Future Meat Technologies).

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What is certain, is that Israel has been amongst the leading countries in terms of cultivated meat funding. Just last year, the Israel Innovation Authority granted $18m (€16.7m) to a new Israeli consortium for cultivated meat development. “The country is definitely very interested in being a leader in this space.”

The EU, on the other hand, is renowned for its stringent and time-intensive Novel Foods regulatory process, which some estimate could easily take a minimum of nine months, and even up to 18 months or longer.

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An obvious positive about the EU’s regulatory process for cultivated meat products is that it’s crystal-clear which regulations apply: Novel Foods law is well established, having been around since 1997.

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