Cultivated foie gras could pave way for more lab-grown meats, EU farmers warn

As a French company seeks approval to sell a cell-based duck product mimicking the famous foie gras, the EU livestock sector denounced the move as “a perfect door opener” for other lab-grown products, questioning their safety and sustainability. 

Lab-grown meat – also known as cultivated or cell-based meat – is produced from animal cells that grow in a nutrient-rich environment to form muscle, fat, and connective tissue.  

The Paris-based company Gourmey announced on 26 July that it had submitted a pre-market application to the European Commission to sell its cultivated foie gras in the EU. 

The request is the first of its kind in the 27-member bloc, where the prospect of lab-grown meat becoming a reality has sparked heated debate in recent months.  

“This first application will open the door to many others, for bigger players and bigger markets,” the European Livestock Voice (ELV), a stakeholder group representing the interests of the meat supply chain, said in a press release published on Tuesday (30 July).  

The organisation, which includes the influential farming lobby COPA-COGECA, brings together sectors ranging from animal health to breeding. 

The ELV emphasised that targeting a “niche” sector like foie gras sets the stage for future applications for more mainstream meat products. 

A European Commission spokesperson confirmed to Euractiv the receipt of Gourmey’s application and said the product will now undergo a risk assessment by the EU’s food safety authority (EFSA), described by the EU executive as “one of the strictest in the world”.

EFSA has nine months to issue its opinion, after which the EU executive will have to present member state representatives with a proposal to authorise or reject the products’ market placement. 

The French company is also seeking market approval in Switzerland, the UK, Singapore, and the US.  

Avoiding force-feeding 

Foie gras – meaning “fatty liver” in French – is made by force-feeding ducks or geese to enlarge their liver, a controversial practice that animal rights groups say should be banned in all EU member states.   

At present, this luxury food is only produced in France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain, and the Belgian region of Wallonia 

According to the ELV, trying to introduce lab-grown meat in the EU through a sector that is limited to a few countries and subject to criticism is “the easy way in”.  

However, NGOs point to cultivated meat’s potential to contribute to a more sustainable food system. 

Asked about Gourmey’s move, the NGO Eurogroup for Animals said the duck product could be a way to avoid “cruel” food production methods.    

“Cultivated meat can improve animal welfare (…) while it creates room for traditional and robust breeds that can contribute to biodiversity by grazing, while at the same time serving as cell stocks,” Jonathan Sander, project officer at Eurogroup for Animals, told Euractiv.  

Unlike other producers of lab-grown food, Gourmey claims not to use the controversial fetal bovine serum – obtained from the blood of bovine fetuses taken from pregnant cows at slaughter – which raises animal welfare concerns. 

Disagreement over risks and tradition 

While Gourmey said its environmental footprint could be significantly lower than those companies that conventionally produce foie gras, the European Livestock Voice questioned the alleged sustainability of cultivated meat. 

“The impact of lab-grown products could be greater than that of traditional livestock farming because the bioreactors in which the cells are grown are energy-intensive,” they said in the press release. 

Strong opposition to cultivated meat has also come from some member states.  

Last January, the agriculture ministers of France, Italy, and Austria – backed by nine other EU countries – called for a stricter assessment of cell-based products, questioning whether EU rules were fit for purpose. 

Lab-grown meat currently falls under the bloc’s Novel Foods Regulation, which includes products that were not significantly present in Europeans’ diets before May 1997 and requires the Commission to green-light their placing on the market.    

More recently, Hungary notified the Commission of its plans to restrict the national production and sale of cultivated meat, mirroring a ban in Italy that was approved but never enforced. 

While reluctant states see lab-grown meat as a threat to traditional production methods, Gourmey presented its cell-based foie gras as a way forward to preserve European food culture.  

This view is echoed by the Good Food Institute (GFI) think tank, which insists on coexistence between innovative products and food traditions. 

“Food innovation can coexist alongside our culinary traditions, providing consumers with foie gras made in a way that could reduce environmental impacts and animal welfare concerns,” said Seth Roberts, policy manager at GFI, reacting to the news last week.  

 [Edited by Sofía Sánchez Manzanaro and Zoran Radosavljevic]

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