A recent desk study by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) earlier this year already showed that more and more new foods make their way to market earlier in Singapore than in the European Union. That RVO research was conducted at the request of the Agricultural Council at the Dutch embassy in Singapore.
The RVO study states that the slow European processing is mainly due to the assessment process being repeatedly put on hold whenever Brussels requests new detailed information from applicants, and those responses must first be processed. This can occur multiple times per application.
Because of these delays, startups particularly face difficulties attracting funding. In July last year, the Netherlands was the first country in the EU to allow testing of cultured meat. According to Dutch companies surveyed, the EFSA approval process can take up to three years.
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In Singapore, approval for cultured meat would take at most nine to twelve months. The Singapore Food Agency actively attracts organizations and companies in cultivated meat and fermentation from around the world. An advantage for Dutch companies is that they can bring their products to market within a relatively short timeframe.
Just last month, Brussels announced the approval of twenty new species of algae into the food chain. The algae producers no longer have to go through the time-consuming and costly novel food procedure. More than 250 Dutch companies are currently working on the transition within protein consumption, according to the RVO desk study.
Singapore was the first country worldwide in 2020 to approve the consumption and sale of cultivated meat. The United States followed last year. Approval in the Netherlands is decided by the EU. However, the Netherlands can decide independently on permitting so-called tastings of new natural food forms, and it was the first EU country to do so last year.
In 2022, the Singaporean company Esco Aster signed letters of intent with two Dutch biotech companies. The intention is for Esco Aster to bring cultivated beef from Mosa Meat and cultivated pork from Meatable to the Singapore market.