France wants 'clear' EU-wide definition of lab-grown meat to satisfy protesting farmers

France wants the European Union to issue a "clear" definition of lab-grown meat, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Thursday as he presented measures designed to satisfy protesting farmers.

Attal told a news conference that cultured meat was "not part of what we understand by French diet" which is why France wanted "clear legislation at the European level to determine what lab-grown meat is."

Last month, agriculture ministers from France, Austria and Italy kicked off what they called a "culinary alliance" seeking a public debate around lab-grown meat.

Synthetic meat cannot be sold in the EU as it has not been authorized by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

Austria and Italy said a public consultation and impact study of such lab-grown meat should be first carried out and then if - as seems likely - it is approved for human consumption, it should be clearly labeled.

The wariness around the issue added to growing tensions in Europe's farm sector, which is staging a slew of protests, largely related to higher production costs and environmental regulations.

The demonstrations come as the EU is undergoing a shift towards a carbon-neutral future, which implies big changes across the bloc - including in food production and farm activities.

Environmentalists see lab-grown meat as a way of helping cut the major greenhouse gas production that is created from livestock farming. Animal rights groups also view it as a way of reducing the death and poor conditions of live animals bred for food.

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Austrian Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig said on January 23 that synthetic meat - already authorized for sale in the U.S. and Singapore - "is by no means comparable with naturally grown meat." 

He added it was "produced under sterile conditions with all kinds of artificial additives and with a high energy requirement. A discussion and a comprehensive impact assessment" was needed, and should it end up being approved in the European Union, "we are calling for mandatory labeling."

His Italian counterpart, Francesco Lollobrigida, said nine other countries had joined that position, set out in a signed document circulated at a Brussels meeting of agriculture ministers. Lollobrigida called cultivated meat "a potential danger for Europe from many points of view, perhaps the health one, perhaps the environmental one, perhaps the ethical one."

Italy in November last year imposed its own ban on the production and sale of synthetic meat.

EU authorization is needed for products considered to be a "novel food" to go on sale.

The EFSA has already approved human consumption in the EU of products derived from house crickets, migratory locusts, yellow mealworm larvae and lesser mealworm larvae, which since 2021 have gone on sale with labeling requirements.

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