Earlier in June 2025, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) had officially announced Australia’s first ever approval of a cultivated meat product, making it the 4th country after Singapore, US and Israel to have approved the sale of cultivated meat.
FSANZ has given its green light to cultivated quail produced by Australian startup Vow through its premium brand, Forged. Singapore had approved the same company product for sale in early 2024. In May 2025, Vow passed a production milestone by producing more than 538 kgs of Japanese quail in a single harvest.
FSANZ has been impressively thorough and transparent in its review process and its approach is expected to increase consumer confidence and could become a model for other countries to follow. As part of the approval, the agency has also developed some category-wide requirements and guidance for cultivated meat producers, in addition to approving Vow’s application—a step towards bringing cultivated meat more in line with the standardised requirements of conventional food categories.
Vow is set to launch its cultivated meat products in exciting venues and acclaimed restaurants in Australia.
According to a report by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) titled Australia’s Protein Roadmap, the alternative protein sector – that includes cultivated, plant-based and fermentation-derived proteins – is projected to contribute significantly to Australia’s A$13 billion (US$8.49 billion) protein market by 2030. Conservatively, this sector is projected to contribute at least A$3 billion (US$1.96 billion) or more than 23% of the protein market.
The Good Food Institute (GFI), in a statement, said that FSANZ’s approval of cultivated quail does help to boost confidence among its counterparts in other countries. Australia, as an agricultural powerhouse, will act as a catalyst and will significantly expand the body of public regulatory data available to other nations, which ultimately will lead to a more serious global look at cultivated meat as a reliable source of future protein. South Korea is expected to complete its first cultivated meat review this year while other countries like Malaysia and Thailand are still in the preliminary stages.
One of the next big development to monitor is possible ‘global regulatory alignment’, an area of work that GFI APAC is leading. At a recent meeting of the UN Codex Alimentarius (food code) in Seoul, representatives from Singapore, China, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia agreed to form a working group to support further development and implementation of GFI-endorsed guidelines for food safety assessments of cell culture media for cultivated meat production, as a means of streamlining regulatory review processes.
It seems that the future of cultivated meat is brighter than ever !
