Viral posts mislead on Italy’s ‘lab-grown meat’ ban

Posts have recently gone viral online saying that Italy has just become the first country in the world to ban “lab-grown meat”, reigniting a debate about its safety and consumption.

This image posted on Instagram and X, for example, features a picture of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and says that Italy has banned “Bill Gates lab-grown meat”, hinting at a conspiracy linked to the US businessman.

Yes, Italy did pass a law in 2023 banning cultivated or lab-grown meat and “meat-related” labels such as “steak” and “salami” for plant-based products, with non-compliant companies facing fines of as much as €60,000.

However, this isn’t a new development as the post implies, and there was no specific targeting of Gates.

It is true that he’s among the investors backing some of the major companies pushing cell-based meat, but Italy’s ban wasn’t tailored to him.

The ban itself is also more nuanced than it first appears. Analysts have labelled the law as “potentially unenforceable” because Italy passed it before the end of the EU’s scrutiny period, known as the TRIS procedure, which would have checked whether it harmed the single market.

Some say that, as a result, courts could strike it down as inapplicable under EU law until the proper procedure is followed, making its future uncertain.

“Because the mandatory TRIS procedure was not fully followed, the measure does not currently produce legal effects,” a spokesperson for Bruno Cell, an Italian startup in the cultured meat sector, told Euronews’ fact-checking team, The Cube.

As things stand, the EU hasn’t yet authorised any meat products derived from lab-grown cells, despite some companies applying for marketing authorisation.

In 2024, French company Gourmey became the first company to do so in the EU for its cultivated foie gras, while Dutch firm Mosa Meat did the same a year later for its cell-based beef. Both applications are still under review.

In such cases, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) conducts a risk assessment of the product. Afterwards, the European Commission and EU member states decide whether or not to grant marketing authorisation for the novel food, in addition to the conditions of its use, such as labelling.

The European Commission generally follows the EFSA’s advice, but it also takes other relevant factors, such as socio-economic and ethical concerns, into account.

If approved, the product is added to the European Union List for Novel Foods and may be marketed in any EU country provided that its conditions for use are respected.

The EFSA told The Cube it is neither for nor against the use of cell-derived food and focuses purely on the safety of a given product.

“EFSA’s first priority is to protect public health,” a spokesperson said. “In the EU regulatory system for novel foods, EFSA’s role is to evaluate the safety of products, including those derived from new technologies such as cell culture techniques.”

“We will carry out our risk assessments of any further applications for cell culture-derived food products on a case-by-case basis in the same way as for all novel foods,” the spokesperson added.

Italy isn’t the only EU country that has expressed concern over lab-grown meat, with Hungary’s parliament also recently voting through a ban, with an exception only for medical and veterinary use.

The government said the measure would help to defend public health and Hungary’s traditional, rural way of life. While Hungary respected the TRIS rule, unlike Italy, the European Commission has warned that such a move could threaten the free movement of goods across the EU.

Elsewhere in Europe, the UK became the first country in the continent to approve cultivated meat in 2024, but only for pet food from the company Meatly. The Netherlands, meanwhile, has carried out regulatory taste tests for humans.

Further afield, very few countries worldwide have approved cultivated meat so far, with Singapore leading the way in 2020, followed by the US (although it’s banned in some states), Israel and Australia.

The pros and cons of cultivated meat

As countries around Europe and beyond decide whether or not to allow cell-based meat onto their shelves, many consumers online question its benefits and highlight concerns that come with the product.

Laura Bosman, content manager and in-house nutrition expert at the European Food Information Council, told The Cube that one of lab-grown meat’s main advantages is better animal welfare.

“Lab-grown, or cell-based, meat offers several potential advantages, including reduced reliance on traditional livestock farming, which could improve animal welfare within the food system and limit exposure to common food-borne pathogens such as Salmonella or Campylobacter, which usually come from the gut of livestock,” she said.

“It may also require less land, water and fertiliser than conventional production,” she added.

A spokesperson for Cellular Agriculture Europe, a trade body representing cultivated meat companies, said that “it could significantly reduce resource use, pollution and land requirements, and, when produced with renewable energy, cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 92% compared to conventional beef.”

“Economically, if regulatory approvals progress and the sector develops alongside plant-based products, cultivated meat could generate up to 90,000 jobs in Europe and contribute as much as €85 billion to the EU economy,” the spokesperson added.

Many of these advantages, though, appear to contain caveats. A common misconception is that lab-grown meat is currently entirely slaughter-free, but in fact, today’s production still relies on animal-derived stem cells and often foetal bovine serum, according to Bosman.

“Sustainability is also frequently oversimplified,” she said. “Despite potential savings in land and water use and fertilisers, the environmental impacts remain uncertain and recent modelling studies have suggested that lab-based meat production could generate problematic levels of CO2 emissions over the long term.”

Another major concern is the effect that the cultivated meat industry could have on livestock farming, if it does indeed start to boom. However, advocates claim that the sector aims to complement farmers’ work, and that it will depend on them to provide livestock cells for cultivation.

“In that regard, considering that by 2050 we expect to have nearly 10 billion people on the planet and that meat consumption is expected to rise globally as much as 50% over 2008 levels, this would present a planetary ecological challenge to be solved, as well as an economic opportunity for Europe,” the Cellular Agriculture Europe spokesperson said.

“Cellular agriculture could play a role in solving this challenge by being part of a protein diversification strategy bolstered by a complementary, multi-stakeholder approach that includes a suite of tools ranging from regenerative agriculture to food biomanufacturing technology like cellular agriculture,” they added.

Ultimately, however, the jury is out on whether Europe has an appetite for lab-grown meat.

“Consumer acceptance will be a major factor in determining whether cell-based meat gains traction in Europe, and current research shows people remain hesitant,” Bosman said. “This is partly because so few have had the opportunity to taste these products.”

“Transparency will be essential, as important uncertainties remain regarding nutrition, sustainability, sensory qualities and cost,” she added. “Independent research will play a key role in answering these questions and building public trust.”