Italy's Ban on Lab-Grown Food to Preserve Culinary Heritage

Italy's government has approved a bill banning the use of laboratory-produced food and animal feed to safeguard the country's agri-food heritage. If passed by parliament, Italian industry will not be allowed to produce food or feed "from cell cultures or tissues derived from vertebrate animals". The agriculture lobby praised the move against "synthetic food", while organisations supporting the development of "cell-based" agricultural products across Europe, as well as animal rights groups, criticised the initiative. The ban on cell-based meat is not the only initiative from Meloni to block non-conventional food from being served on Italian tables.