Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has recently imposed specific conditions on an Australian company’s application to use a cultivated quail product as a food ingredient. Simon Eassom, Executive Director of Food Frontier, an Australian alternative protein think tank, shared insights on this development in a LinkedIn post at the end of December.
FSANZ has clarified that the term ‘cultivated’ is not appropriate for this product, instead opting to label it as ‘cultured Japanese quail.’ Furthermore, FSANZ has decided that the product cannot be described as ‘meat’ due to its structure not meeting the regulatory criteria for a meat product.
In addition to these terminological stipulations, FSANZ has specified that the company, Vow, is not permitted to sell the cultured quail directly to consumers. The product can only be utilised as an ingredient in other food items, such as dumplings or sausages.
The initial approval for this cultured quail product was based on a production method that yields small quantities. However, FSANZ has noted that as Vow plans to scale up its production process, further evaluation will be necessary. This is to ensure that no allergens or pathogens are introduced during the scaling-up of production.
The regulatory process under Food Standards will proceed with six weeks for public feedback, allowing general input on this novel food product.
