FSANZ and Vow Group representatives to speak at AltProteins 23

Food Frontier has announced it will host the CEO and co-founder of Vow Group, George Peppou, and Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) Principal Toxicologist and Risk Assessor Dr Nick Fletcher as key speakers at its upcoming AltProteins 23 conference, taking place in Melbourne on 4 October.

The conference is designed to foster dialogue at a decisive moment for the cultivated meat industry. After Vow applied to sell its quail product as a food ingredient in February 2023, FSANZ has been faced with the challenge of balancing food safety with facilitating business growth, potentially igniting a new consumer market in the region. The public commentary stage on Vow’s application is expected to begin by the end of September 2023.

Dr Simon Eassom, Food Frontier Executive Director, said he hopes the public will get behind the application.

“Alternative proteins can be part of the solution to Australia’s declining export complexity, which we saw through Harvard Kennedy School’s recent announcement that Australia’s worldwide position had deteriorated significantly to 93rd in the world, due to a heavy reliance on exporting raw goods,” Eassom said.

Singapore was the first to approve cultivated meat in 2020 and the US was second in June 2023. The company behind GOOD Meat’s inaugural US approval will also speak at AltProteins 23.

Another major topic at AltProteins 23 is the potential for Australia and New Zealand to become a leader in sustainable food production worldwide.

Australia has 25 plant-based meat companies and 14 start-ups in the broader cellular agriculture space, including two companies in ANZ working on cultivated meat.

Image credit: iStock.com/Arkadiusz Warguła