Hungarian Parliament votes to ban artificial meat

The Hungarian Parliament has passed a law banning artificial meat. The ban applies to products isolated or produced from animal cells or tissue under artificial conditions outside a living organism, i.e., vegan meat substitutes—which are made from plant proteins such as soy, peas, or wheat, water, and additives— are not covered by the ban. The measure was passed with 140 votes in favor, 10 against, and 18 abstentions.

The Ministry of Agriculture put its plans for banning the production and distribution of lab-grown meat up for public debate last summer, after which nothing happened for nearly a year. Then in March this year, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén submitted the proposal to parliament with the endorsement of the Minister of Agriculture, István Nagy. The only exception to the ban are medical and veterinary use.

The Ministry of Agriculture has for years argued that artificial meat raises several questions and concerns, and that its consumption is therefore presumed to be unsafe. They also claim that artificial meat has a large ecological footprint and increases social inequalities.

In 2024, the general ban was justified with a brief reasoning, stating that the draft was formulated "in the interest of protecting human health and the environment, as well as the need for sustainable agricultural production and the protection of the traditional rural way of life." The current bill elaborates on the concerns surrounding artificial meat, stating that "technologies and production methods that differ from traditional ones have the potential to threaten our fundamental values," and that "we do not yet have a satisfactory answer" to these challenges.

Even Prime Minister Viktor Orbán touched on the issue of lab-grown meat in his 2024 annual state of the nation speech, saying that Brussels now wants to force synthetic meat and GMO meat on Hungarians instead of fresh, home-grown meat.

The Italian parliament was the first in the European Union (in 2023) to ban the production and distribution of meat grown in laboratories from stem cells and products derived from it.