Italian Government Planning To Ban Production, Sale Of Synthetic Food, Feed - Reports

The Italian government intends to completely ban the production and sale of synthetic food and animal feed, with the relevant bill, prepared by the Agriculture Ministry, scheduled for discussion at the evening meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday, Italian media reported

ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th March, 2023) The Italian government intends to completely ban the production and sale of synthetic food and animal feed, with the relevant bill, prepared by the Agriculture Ministry, scheduled for discussion at the evening meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday, Italian media reported.

The draft includes a ban on the use in the production, sale, import, preparation for export and distribution of "food or feed products consisting of, received or produced from cell cultures or tissues obtained from vertebrate animals," the Tgcom24 broadcaster reported. Violators will be fined 10,000 to 60,000 thousand Euros ($10,800 - $65,000). At the same time, if there is large-scale production involved, penalties can increase up to 10% of the company's annual turnover and include the confiscation of manufactured products.

The explanatory note to the bill, presented by Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, states that the production of meat from cells grown from animal stem cells is a most attractive niche for businesses, the report said. This is a multibillion-dollar market that currently attracts more and more investors.

The Agriculture Ministry's position was actively supported by the leading national association of agricultural producers of Italy, Coldiretti. Its president, Ettore Prandini, recalled that about 500,000 Italians had signed a public petition advocating the need to protect Italian food products from the aggressive policies of transnational companies working in this area, the media outlet reported.

"The lies about test-tube food confirm that there is a precise strategy by the multinationals, which, with skillful marketing operations, are trying to change natural dietary habits based on quality and tradition," he said, as quoted by the ANSA news agency.

Prandini also noted that in this case it was not even meat, but "a synthetic, engineered product," and there are no guarantees that the chemicals used in the production are safe for human health.