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While Italy recently put its cuisine up for UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage listing, the country's government is now seeking to preserve its culinary tradition by banning lab-grown food.
While Italy recently put its cuisine up for UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage listing, the country's government is now seeking to preserve its culinary tradition by banning lab-grown food.
Are rigatoni al ragù, carbonara and osso buco under threat from technological innovations in lab-grown food? The comparison might seem far-fetched. And yet, Italy seems to think that this could be the case. Or at least it seems that the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, does, as, upon his appointment, he added responsibility for national food sovereignty to his title. Now, the Italian government has approved a draft law that would prohibit not only the production of meat and other foods made in laboratories, but also their import and export. The government is very serious about this issue and foresees fines of up to €60,000 for companies that are found to breach the new rules, reports the Guardian.
This type of synthetic food, viewed in Europe as a "novel food" in the same way as insects, is not yet authorized for sale in the EU (unlike crickets and mealworms, among others). And this position does not seem likely to change any time soon.
Preserving Italian culinary heritage
However, beyond any health-related precautions, Italy fears for the preservation of its culinary identity. The country's Health Minister, Orazio Schillaci, has evoked the potential threat to the Mediterranean diet if research into lab-grown food production continues in this direction. The Agriculture Minister, Francesco Lollobrigida, sees these innovations as a menace to Italian traditions. However, such opinions are not unanimous among the Italian political class.
In recent years, Italy has been somewhat concerned about the preservation of its culinary heritage, adopting measures to prevent street food from taking over the restaurant business. In 2017, for example, Venice authorities took action to prohibit the opening of new fast-food outlets in the city. The opening of a McDonald's near the Vatican caused controversy at around the same time.
In Europe, however, Italy is (for the moment) alone in opposing the research and development of synthetic meat and foods. According to a report from Digital Food Lab, more than €9 billion were invested in food tech companies (including those researching lab-grown meat) in 2021, compared to €3 billion in 2020. The initial hype appears to have subsided, however, as investments declined by 36% between 2021 and 2022.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Europe...
Looking solely at the sums devoted to the development of synthetic foods, the third highest-investing country is the Netherlands. The European country is home to Mosa Meat, the company that famously developed the very first burger made with lab-grown meat in 2013. It even boasts of getting the Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio on board as an investor. According to a report published by UK-based GovGrant, the Netherlands invested nearly £124 million (about €140 million) in 2022 in developing lab-grown meat techniques, far behind the world's biggest leaders, the United States (£1.3 billion, or about €1.5 billion) and Israel (£475 million, or about €538 million). Home to HigherSteaks, the United Kingdom is fifth in the list (£28.55 million, about €32 million), France is ninth (£10.70 million, about €12 million) and Spain is tenth (£10.12 million, about €11.5 million).
