The farce of the ban on cellular agriculture and ‘meat sounding’ in Italy continues, with the publication in the Official Journal of law 1 December 2023 no. 172. Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida – in the news recently for having stopped a high-speed train outside the station (1) – claims that Italy is the first country to ban ‘cultivated meat’. (2)
1) Cellular agriculture and ‘meat sounding’, the Italian law
The Italian Parliament approved the bill on ‘cellular agriculture’ and ‘meat sounding’, as we have seen, on 15 November 2023. (3) The manifest unconstitutionality of the provision, already mentioned on the GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade) website – should have induce the head of state to abstain from his signature. (4)
Coldiretti – the sprawling organization that commands agri-food policies in Italy, without paying attention to the compatibility of its own desires with the law (5,6) – has however also reached the Quirinale, where the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, signed the law today in the Official Journal. (7)
The draft law has meanwhile been notified to the European Commission on 1 December 2023, pursuant to TRIS (Technical Regulations Information System) Directive EU 2015/1535. (8) After the Italian government had withdrawn the notification of the same bill, following the collection of negative comments in Europe from various ‘stakeholders’. (9)
1.1) ‘Cell cultures’, absolute ban
Invoked as a Moloch the precautionary principle, it is stated that ‘it is forbidden for food sector operators and feed sector operators to use in the preparation of food, drinks and feed, sell, hold for sale, import, produce for export, administer or distribute for food consumption or promote food or feed consisting of, isolated or produced from cell or tissue cultures deriving from vertebrate animals‘(Article 2).
1.2) ‘Meat sounding’ and ‘fish sounding’ prohibited on ‘plant-based foods’
The end from ‘protect the national livestock heritage, recognizing its high cultural, socio-economic and environmental value‘ instead motivates the ban, on ‘processed products containing exclusively vegetable proteins‘, to use:
a) legal, usual and descriptive names referring to meat [e.g. ‘vegan burger’], to a meat-based production [e.g. ‘veg scallops‘] or to products obtained mainly from meat [e.g. ‘vegetable meatballs‘],
b) references to animal species or groups of animal species or to an animal morphology or animal anatomy [e.g. ‘vegan fillet‘],
c) specific terminologies of butchers and delicatessens [e.g. ‘veg. bresaola‘] or the fishmonger’s [e.g. ‘vegan tuna sauce‘],
d) names of foods of animal origin representative of commercial uses [e.g. veg frankfurters].
The Minister of Agriculture, within 60 days of the entry into force of the law, should publish a decree containing ‘a list of food sales denominations which, if traced back to vegetable products, can mislead the citizen who consumes the food’s composition‘(Article 3).
1.3) Sanctions also for investors
The penalties for the prohibitions referred to in the previous paragraphs are the most serious ever seen in food law in Italy:
– main penalties. ‘Unless the fact constitutes a crime, food sector operators and feed sector operators who violate the provisions of articles 2 and 3 are subject to a pecuniary administrative sanction ranging from a minimum of 10.000 euros up to a maximum of 60.000 euros or of 10 percent of the total annual turnover achieved in the last financial year closed before the violation was ascertained, when this amount exceeds €60.000. However, the maximum fine cannot exceed €150.000’,
– additional sanctions. ‘The violation results in the confiscation of the illicit product, the application of the administrative sanctions of the prohibition of access to contributions, financing or concessions or other disbursements of the same type, however denominated, granted or provided by the State, by other public bodies or by the European Union for the carrying out of entrepreneurial activities, for a minimum period of one year and a maximum of three years, as well as the closure of the production plant, for the same period‘ (Article 5),
– indexing. ‘The amount of the administrative pecuniary sanctions provided for by this law is updated every two years, based on the changes in the national consumer price index for the entire community, recorded by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), by decree‘ of the ministers of Economy, Health and Agriculture, (article 6). Conversely, payment in a reduced amount is not permitted, as for any other administrative sanction in the food sector (Article 4).
Investors – ‘Anyone who has financed, promoted or facilitated in any way the conduct referred to in articles 2 and 3‘ (cellular agriculture and ‘meat sounding’) – are subject to the same sanctions (Article 5).
2) False Italian declarations in Brussels
The Ministry of Industry (now renamed ‘of companies and Made in Italy’) – in accompanying the notification of the law in Brussels – repeats, as in the past, a false declaration in a public document:
– ‘given the absence, at the moment, of specific legislation in the European field, it was decided to intervene as a precaution at a national level to protect interests linked to health and cultural heritage. In particular, the regulatory project intends to protect human health by establishing a ban on the production and marketing of synthetic foods in implementation and compliance with the precautionary principle referred to in Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 28 January 2002‘.
The Novel Food Regulation (EU) No 2015/2283, contrary to what was declared by the ministerial leaders:
– applies ‘to the placing of novel foods on the Union market‘ (article 2. Scope),
– expressly provides, in the notion of novel food ‘foods consisting of, isolated from or produced from cell or tissue cultures derived from animals, plants, microorganisms, fungi or algae‘ (Article 3.2.a.vi).
3) Fact-checking
The first food from ‘cell culture’ has already been approved by the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), precisely pursuant to the Novel Food Regulation. And we are not talking about ‘synthetic meat’ or ‘cultured meat’, but rather about bioactive substances with cosmaceutical functions reproduced starting from an indigenous variety of Swiss apples, as we have seen. (10)
The recall of names of meat, meat preparations and products cannot be banned by national legislators. The previous attempt in this direction, carried out by France, was submitted to the Court of Justice of the European Union, as we have seen. (11) The labels of ‘veg’ products also boast of their nature, without any risk of confusion.
4) Game over
The ugly Italian mess must be stopped immediately by the European Commission which, remember, has the primary responsibility of ensuring compliance with the ‘Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union’ (TFEU) whose first pillar is rooted in the free movement of goods. The General Directorate ‘Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs’ has the duty to notify Italy to disapply and withdraw the law in question.
Wastepaper in any case, this is the fate of all the rules adopted in violation of the TRIS Directive, as in this case following ‘back and forth’ with notification of a text already approved by the European Parliament. The consolidated jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice clarifies the duty of all administrative authorities – and not just judicial ones – to disapply these rules ex officio. (11)
Responsibilities of the managers of the public administrations involved must in any case be ascertained and prosecuted, taking into account both the useless waste of public resources and the unjust damage caused to food sector operators through the application of illegitimate regulations. Our team of FARE (Food and Agriculture Requirements) is available to operators who intend to assert their rights.
Dario Dongo
Cover image from Mauro Fornasero, ‘The Puppet Opera’ https://tinyurl.com/ms6czmzd
Footnotes
(1) Railways: Lollobrigida’s Frecciarossa arrives at the Prosecutor’s Office and the League discharges it. Railways Info. 24.11.23 https://tinyurl.com/4ybrzr9e
(2) MASAF (Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry). Press release. 1.12.23 https://foodtimes.eu/4bmnz9sb
(3) Dario Dongo. Cellular agriculture, the Parliament in Italy approves the ban. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 15.11.23
(4) Dario Dongo. Italy, cellular agriculture prohibited by law? Unconstitutional bill. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 2.4.23
(5) Dario Dongo. Coldiretti, the Agromafie Observatory and the Porsche of the Customs Agency. The document. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 25.6.23
(6) Dario Dongo. AGEA and MASAF ‘Coldiretti’. The suppression of freelancers in agriculture. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 30.9.23
(7) Law 1 December 2023, n. 172. Provisions regarding the ban on the production and placing on the market of food and feed consisting of, isolated or produced from cell or tissue cultures deriving from vertebrate animals as well as the ban on the denomination of meat for processed products containing vegetable proteins. (23G00188) https://foodtimes.eu/2p8hbd3m
(8) European Commission. TRIS Database. Notification 2023/0675/IT (Italy). End of the standstill period 4.3.24 https://foodtimes.eu/47r3tp2w
(9) Dario Dongo. Cellular agriculture and ‘meat sounding’, Italy under the EU lens. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 5.10.23
(10) Dario Dongo, Andrea Adelmo Della Penna. EFSA gives the green light to the first novel food from cellular agriculture. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 6.10.23
(11) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Meat sounding, the word to the EU Court of Justice. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 28.8.23
(12) Another exemplary case is the one treated in the previous article ‘Location of establishment on food labels? The lawyer Dario Dongo responds‘. DO (Food and Agriculture Requirements). 29.11.23
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
