From beyond meat and insect protein to vegan cheese and 3D-printed seafood, the past decade has dished up some bold food trends. Now, Australia’s getting a taste of the future with the official approval for lab-grown (or cell-cultured) meat to be sold and consumed across the country.
It’s taken more than two years for Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) to give the green light to lab-grown meat, which it granted to Sydney-based startup Vow on June 18. Founded in 2019, Vow has been selling its cultivated Japanese quail foie gras to more than 25 high-end restaurants in Singapore for a year under the name ‘Forged’. The Asian country made history in late 2020 as the first country to approve cultivated meat, followed by the United States in mid-2023 with lab-grown chicken. This makes Australia officially the third country in the world to approve lab-grown meat for sale and consumption.
So, how exactly is cultured meat made at Vow? It all starts with selecting the perfect cells from an animal. These cells are then placed in a huge fermentation tank with a nutrient-rich liquid, which is designed to replicate the body of a living animal. From there, the cells grow and multiply naturally. After just 79 days, a ‘harvesting’ process occurs where the meat is separated from the liquid, like curds from whey, and then crafted into delicacies like parfait and foie gras.
Quail might seem like an odd choice, but that’s exactly the point – Vow intentionally steered away from everyday meats like chicken or beef to avoid direct comparisons. Rather than competing for shelf space at the supermarket, the startup is also focusing on fine dining. Its cultured Japanese quail foie gras is set to debut on menus at Sydney’s Kitchen by Mike, NEL, Olio and The Waratah, plus Bottarga, 1Hotel and The Lincoln in Melbourne – all within the next few months, if everything goes to plan.
Vow originally created the product to address global food shortages, but cultivated meat also carries potential environmental and ethical benefits – it’s made without farms, emissions or animal harm. That said, as a niche product, it comes with high costs and energy demands. There's also ongoing debate around how it should be labelled, with concerns that using the word ‘meat’ and livestock imagery on packaging could mislead consumers.
Would you be game to give it a go? A 2023 FSANZ survey of Australians and New Zealanders found that only 24 per cent would readily incorporate it into their diets, with almost half (48 per cent) saying they wouldn’t. But the food world is moving fast – so who knows what our dinner plates will look like in a decade?