"Before any authorisation we ask the Commission to initiate a genuine and comprehensive public consultation on cell-based products" which "can never be called meat" and place "ethical, economic, social and environmental issues, as well as on nutrition and health security" is stated in the document of the Austrian, French and Italian delegations but also supported by the Czech, Cypriot, Greek and Hungarian delegations, Luxembourg, Lithuanian, Maltese, Romanian and Slovak. which will be presented to the European Council "Agriculture and Fisheries" on 23 January 2024.

"The alliance born in Europe takes on board the concerns raised first by Coldiretti and confirms the leading role of Italy which is a world leader in food quality and safety, in policies to protect the health of citizens", commented the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini in expressing appreciation for the EU leadership of the minister of Agriculture and food sovereignty Francesco Lollobrigida. 

"The position of a growing number of countries is a response -Prandini says- to the need to have unique impact analysis by public research and avoid turning citizens into human guinea pigs, as we first asked. The growing distrust in fact confirms the need to respect the precautionary principle in front of a new technology with many unknowns that risks changing the lives of people and the environment that surrounds us" "precisely for this reason the challenge that Coldiretti presents to the European institutions is that products in the laboratory in the authorisation processes are not treated as food but rather as pharmaceutical products".

In the document already supported by 12 Countries of the Union -underlines Coldiretti- the Commission is invited to present a global impact assessment on artificial foods before any authorisation to sell and consume to address ethical issues, economic, social and environmental issues, as well as nutrition and health security issues. These new practices -he specifies- include the production of food using stem cell technology with the need to avoid risks to the health of consumers.

The document -continues Coldiretti- points out that account must be taken of the fact that the EU has already decided to ban food produced from cloned animals and meat treated with hormones" used instead in bio-reactors for artificial foods, while in economic terms it calls for "The Commission and all States to take preventive measures against food production monopolies" supported by high fixed costs and economies of scale that benefit few large-scale producers with the risk of dependencies along the food chain.

The initial studies, however, according to the document also show -specifies Coldiretti- a poor environmental sustainability with the process of production of food based on cells that highlights a high energy intensity, generating up to 25 times more CO₂ equivalent per kilogram than genuine meat.

To worry the signatories is also the need to maintain pastures even in less favoured areas and mountains, which provide invaluable environmental services such as carbon storage and prevent -concludes Coldiretti- increase inequalities in the affordability of genuine meat products to consumers.