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Speaking in parliament, Italy’s minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida, said the bill was aimed at preserving Italy’s food heritage, as well as protecting consumer health.
According to a report in the Daily Sun newspaper, if the bill was promulgated into law, fines of up to €60 000 (about R1,16 million) could be imposed on transgressors.
Coldiretti, a free trade association for agricultural entrepreneurs and farmers based in Rome, along with other agricultural lobby groups, reportedly collected more than half a million signatures in recent months in support of the protection of “natural food versus synthetic food”, with the country’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni also adding her signature.
“We could only celebrate with our farmers a measure that puts our farmers in the vanguard, not just on the issue of defending excellence, but also in defending consumers,” she told Coldiretti supporters outside her office in Rome.
According to Reuters, the bill stated that manufacturers in Italy would not be allowed to produce food or animal feed “from cell cultures or tissues derived from vertebrate animals”.
“Laboratory products in our opinion do not guarantee quality, well-being and the protection of our culture [or] our tradition,” Lollobrigida, a senior member of Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party, said.
The country’s new government had earlier pledged to “shield Italy’s food from technological innovations seen as harmful”.
The proposed bill was met with anger by animal rights groups and other supporters of “cell-based” agricultural products across Europe, Reuters said.
“The passing of such a law would shut down the economic potential of this nascent field in Italy, holding back scientific progress and climate mitigation efforts,” Alice Ravenscroft, head of policy at the Good Food Institute Europe, said.
This proposed legislation came hard on the heels of a series of government decrees banning the use of flour derived from insects such as crickets and locusts in pizza or pasta, the Daily Sun reported.
Although no approval for the production for cell-based agricultural products had to date been authorised in the EU, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) previously stated that such products including cultured meat “could be considered as a promising and innovative solution […] for healthy and environmentally friendly food systems”.
Industry analysts also pointed out that Italy would not be able to oppose the sale of synthetic meat produced within the EU when it does gain EU approval, because of the free movement of goods and services.
