The FEASTS consortium partner is the first cultured meat company to submit a novel food dossier in the EU. It has also applied for approval of its cultivated duck in Singapore, the US, the UK and Switzerland. Gourmey will use the cultivated duck to make foie gras.
Posted on 29 Jul 2024
The first application for approval of cultured meat in Europe constitutes a major milestone for the sector. Gourmey, a French startup has filed dossiers with the European Commission and European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the US Food and Drug Administration, the Singapore Food Agency, the UK Food Standards Agency, and the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO).
Regulators worldwide put consumer safety at the centre of the approval process, with robust frameworks in place to assess the safety of novel foods such as cultivated foods. In the EU, this is the first time a company is seeking novel food approval for cultivated food, while European regulations are widely considered to represent the gold standard in novel food safety and risk assessment. Meanwhile the US, Singapore and Israel have already approved sales.
“We look forward to continuing to work closely with the regulatory authorities to ensure full compliance with safety requirements throughout these procedures” says Gourmey’s CEO Nicolas Morin-Forest
Gourmey was founded in 2019 and creates sustainable gourmet products directly from non-GMO animal cells. The company is based at its food innovation center in Paris with an international team of 60. It is currently preparing for market entry, pending regulatory approvals. In the FEASTS project Gourmey is participating in a the task devoted to the study of consumer perceptions of cultured meat, creating strategies to overcome barriers of acceptance and co-designing new or improved products with consumers.
