The Dutch government released on July 5 a letter agreeing on the conditions under which cultivated meat and seafood products can be allowed to be tasted in controlled environments in The Netherlands.
Taste is a fundamental factor to make sure to meet future consumers’ expectations, but so far food scientists in Europe are not allowed to taste their cultivated products samples, due to EU’s food health and safety measures.
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, prior to an EU novel food approval.
“…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 make our products even better with their feedback,” said Krijn de Nood, CEO of the Dutch cultivated pork meat company Meatable.
The proposal was firstly introduced at the Dutch House of Representatives by member of the D66 party Tjeerd de Groot in March 2022, despite he has been working to make cultivated food tasting since 2018.
The so called ‘code of conduct’ under which cultivated meat tastings could be organised were agreed in collaboration with national cultivated meat producers, namely Meatable and cultivated beef company Mosa Meat, as well as sector representative HollandBIO.
“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,” said Mosa Meat’s CEO Maarten Bosch, who earlier in May opened the biggest cultivated meat campus ready to produce thousands of cultivated beef burgers.
Cultivated products’ tastings are already allowed in Israel, Singapore and the U.S.
Meatable, which with its technology is able to produce cultivated pork products in just eight days, held in May its first-ever tasting in Singapore after receiving the Singapore Food Agency’s (SFA) approval for a trial.
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