15 January 2025
Cattle Australia (CA) has slammed proposed regulations for lab-grown fake foods for their lack of clear labelling requirements and defiance of the recommendations of a Federal Senate inquiry.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has been undertaking public consultation in response to a proposal to permit the use of cultured quail cells as a novel food.
CA says the regulations proposed by FSANZ provide no reassurance that lab-grown proteins are safe for consumers and the environment, or that the labelling requirements will avoid mislead consumers.
“Lab-grown proteins must be held to the same food safety, environmental and labelling standards as real products like beef,” CA Chief Executive Dr Chris Parker said.
“The processes and ingredients used to produce these products are often ‘commercial in confidence’ so it is very unclear what is actually in this stuff.
“The FSANZ framework fails to provide the detail consumers and industry are looking for as to how fake foods will be labelled, which goes against the recommendations of the 2022 Senate Rural and Regional Affairs Committee inquiry.
“If the pathway set out by FSANZ is followed, novel foods may only have to be described as ‘cell-cultured’ or ‘cell-cultivated’, which doesn’t adequately describe to consumers that they are in fact eating fake meat.”
CA has argued that minimum labelling standards for plant-based or lab-grown proteins should prohibit any reference to animal food products, including the words meat, beef, lamb and goat.
“We strongly believe that the use of livestock images on plant or synthetic protein packaging or marketing materials should also be outlawed as it is a deliberate deception of consumers designed to dupe them into believing they are eating something that they are not,” Dr Parker said.
“The use of the word beef and images of cattle on fake foods has been proven to be confusing to consumers, and actually weakens the value of the real thing.
“Beef should be defined in law as only including products derived from actual livestock raised by cattle producers.”
ENDS
MEDIA ENQUIRIES:
Stacey Wordsworth
stacey.wordsworth@bluehillagency.com.au
0438 394 371
Michael Thomson
michael.thomson@bluehillagency.com.au
0408 819 666
