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Image: Cookgem / FIS
Bill against ´synthetic meat´, fines of up to 60 thousand euros
ITALY
Friday, March 31, 2023, 07:00 (GMT + 9)
A bill banning the production and placing on the market of cellular crops is being studied, this afternoon the Council of Ministers is discussing it. They could help overcome factory farming
Source: BlueNalu / FIS
The agenda of the Council of Ministers to be held this afternoon also includes a bill concerning synthetic food and feed. "This law lays down provisions on the subject of the prohibition of the production and placing on the market of synthetic foods", reads the explanatory report of the provision viewed by the AGI.
 A ban on the production and marketing of synthetic foods is established, the ban "includes both food intended for human consumption and feed intended for animal consumption". Operators who violate the provisions will be subject to a pecuniary administrative sanction "from a minimum of 10,000 euros up to a maximum of 60,000 euros or up to 10 percent of the total annual turnover achieved in the last financial year ended prior to the ascertainment of the violation, when this amount exceeds 60,000 euros, in addition to the confiscation of the illicit product".
The agenda of the Council of Ministers to be held this afternoon also includes a bill concerning synthetic food and feed. "This law lays down provisions on the subject of the prohibition of the production and placing on the market of synthetic foods", reads the explanatory report of the provision viewed by the AGI.
The government in particular imposes a stop on "synthetic meat". "Among the synthetic foods, the one on which research and production has focused the most is meat which is the result of a cell cultivation process carried out in the laboratory on animal stem cells", the premise of the bill.
<-- Photos Cookgem
In some non-European countries - the draft of the provision underlines - "studies aimed at the production of such foods for commercial purposes" are at an advanced stage and in the United States the go-ahead has arrived "for the first chicken meat produced in a laboratory, i.e. a meat that is produced by developing animal cells in the laboratory". "The status of the research and experimentation of synthetic foods seems - it is remarked - to be at an embryonic stage, such that one is not in the conditions, especially scientific ones, to be able to exclude that such artificially produced foods do not have negative consequences for human health".
It is not at all "verified what effect the consumption of synthetic foods could generate" on human health, the draft of the bill underlines. Furthermore "with reference to the sustainability of products of an artificial nature, there is no scientific evidence that demonstrates potential advantages for the environment". Indeed, "scientists and researchers also warn of the risks that such industrial production could cause to agricultural systems". Among other things, cultured meats "may require the use of antibiotics to ensure sterile growing environments. Antibiotic residues can persist in products and contribute to the spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens". In the course of processing, "other hazardous materials" are then used. "It should be underlined that" - it continues - "in the course of a trial, the intake of ultra-processed foods was associated with a higher risk of overall cardiovascular disease".
For all these reasons "it was therefore decided to intervene as a precaution at a national level to protect interests that are linked to health and cultural heritage". In addition to the sanctions, a stop is imposed "on contributions, loans or subsidies or other disbursements of the same type, however denominated, granted or disbursed by the State, by other public bodies or by the European Union for the performance of business activities" and provides for "the closure of the production plant for a minimum period of one year and up to three years".
The competent authorities for the checks will be "the Ministry of Health, the Regions, the local health authorities, the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Health, through the territorially competent Anti-adulteration Nuclei, the Forestry, Environmental and Agri-food Unit Command".
Source: RAI News
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