Lab-grown quail meat cleared for sale ahead of imminent appearance at Australian restaurants

Cultured meat business Vow, which says it has worked for more than two years on food safety assessment with Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), has announced that sale of its cultured quail meat is now officially approved in Australia.

In a statement on Wednesday, the company said its Forged brand Japanese quail will be introduced at Kitchen by Mike in Sydney and hatted restaurant Bottarga in Melbourne, as well as other venues, “within weeks”.

“We’ve worked closely with FSANZ over the past two years, and we’re proud to have earned their approval. It’s a rigorous process, and rightly so,” said Vow’s CEO George Peppou, who founded the company in 2019.

“This is an important milestone for cultured meat in Australia and around the globe – to have the stamp of approval from a trusted global regulator such as FSANZ – and we’re excited to bring safe, high-quality products to local diners through some of the country’s most talented chefs.”

The product was introduced in Singaporean restaurants in April last year after gaining regulatory approval in that market.

The meat will be made in Sydney, said Vow, “without farming the animal itself” and using “just a small selection  of cells from a Japanese quail”. Only the parts of the animal that are desirable to eat are grown, it added.

After cells are selected, they “are placed in a nutrient-rich broth, then transferred into fermentation tanks similar to those used in brewing.”

The conditions inside a quail’s body are carefully recreated, “allowing the cells to grow and multiply naturally” and the meat harvested after 79 days, “separated from the broth like curds from whey” and then formed into dishes including parfait and foie gras. 

Vow added that there “is no genetic modification or synthetic additives” in the process.

Further reading

Australian cultured quail hits Singapore tables

If we perfect cultivated meat, we could hedge against food shortages as climate chaos intensifies

Plant-based patties, lab-grown meat and insects: how the protein industry is innovating to meet demand