Lab Grown Meat to Be Served up in Australian Restaurants for the First Time

‘This is just the beginning,’ Sydney cultured meat company Vow said.

Quail from Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors is prepared during Chef Justin Smillie's California Cool class at The 8th Annual New York Culinary Experience Presented By New York Magazine And The International Culinary Center in New York City, on April 16, 2016. Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for the New York Culinary Experience

Japanese cell-cultured quail will soon be served up at Australian restaurants after a local company received the green light from Food Standards Australia.

“This isn’t just a regulatory milestone. It’s the start of something new: a way of creating meat that’s unlike anything you’ve tasted before. And for the first time, it will be available to diners across Sydney and Melbourne this July,” Sydney company Vow said in a social media post.

“This is just the beginning.”

A new food standards code, published on June 18, confirms that the lab-grown meat has been approved.

“The application from Vow Group Pty Ltd sought approval to use cultured quail cells in combination with other ingredients to make products such as logs, rolls and patties,” Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) said in a statement.

FSANZ concluded the cell-cultured product was “safe for human consumption” with “no toxicological, nutritional or allergenic concerns.”

“The quail cell line was found to be genetically stable, and microbiological risks associated with its production can be effectively managed through established food safety controls,” it said.

FSANZ is responsible for managing food safety in Australia, including labelling, handling, and production.  

“To support the introduction of cultured quail and other future cell-cultured foods, FSANZ also developed new standards that establish clear requirements for labelling, production and sale,” it added.

“The application from Vow Group Pty Ltd sought approval to use cultured quail cells in combination with other ingredients to make products such as logs, rolls and patties.”

What Do the New Standards Require?

The new standards developed by FSANZ for cell-cultured foods will now require these foods to include special labels stating “cell-cultured or cell-cultivated.”

Any cell-cultured foods must be assessed and approved as “safe” by FSANZ before they can be sold in Australia.

Singapore was the first nation in the world to approve cultured meat for sale, back in 2020.

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the sale of lab-grown chicken from Good Meat to be sold to Americans.

“We have been the only company selling cultivated meat anywhere in the world since we launched in Singapore in 2020, and now it’s approved to sell to consumers in the world’s largest economy,” the company said at the time.

Other countries globally looking into lab-grown meat include Israel, the Netherlands, Japan and South Korea. In 2013, the Netherlands developed the first lab-grown beef burger.

However, a University of California Davis study in 2023 argued that lab-grown meat was not “inherently better for the environment.”

“Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have found that lab-grown or ‘cultivated’ meat’s environmental impact is likely to be ‘orders of magnitude’ higher than retail beef based on current and near-term production methods,” the study found.

Not Quail as We Know It

Vow said cultured quail was finally landing at home in Australia after years of “turning heads” and making mouths water in Singapore.

“We started with Japanese quail because it offered something different: a lighter texture, deeper flavour, and a totally new way to experience meat. Not a copy, not a substitute—something original,” the company said.

“From that one ingredient, we’ve made a handful of decadent things that chefs are already getting excited about. All made in Sydney. All coming to menus soon. Knives, forks, spoons, hands — whatever works. Get ready.”

Vow’s chief executive officer and founder, George Peppou, states the company’s approach is not to produce the “meats we know.”

“We are focused on using cultured meat technology to craft an entirely new category of food,” he explains on LinkedIn. 

“Cultured meat, unlike animal agriculture, isn’t limited to the animals that grow fast and breed well in captivity. In fact, any animal with cells is now on the menu.”

Peppou confirmed that by the end of the month, cultured meat would be available for tasting in “dozens” of Australian restaurants for the first time in Sydney and Melbourne.

“Bringing a totally new category of food to market is a hugely complex undertaking,” he added.