European food startups and investors are voicing increasing concerns regarding the European Union’s approval process for novel foods, describing it as excessively lengthy, hindering innovation and lacking transparency.
“The process for gaining EU approval for novel foods is a nightmare” stated Patrick Noller of Berlin-based startup investor Foodlabs, as reported in a recent Spiegel interview. He highlighted that securing approval for a new food product is now demonstrably more challenging than gaining approval for pharmaceuticals within the EU, a discrepancy that no longer aligns with the pace of modern innovation, particularly when compared to markets in the United States or Asia. Consequently, many companies are contemplating relocating their operations.
Ivo Rzegotta, from the Good Food Institute (GFI) in Europe, emphasized that the EU risks missing out on a significant leadership role in this burgeoning industry. He argued that startups in the food sector currently face a clear competitive disadvantage within the EU, potentially leading to Europe losing ground on a future multi-billion dollar market, following similar setbacks in the solar and semiconductor industries.
The EU’s Novel Food Regulation, established in 1997, governs the approval of novel foods. Critics like Christian Dammann, Chief Technical Officer of Bluu Seafood, which produces cultivated fish using bioreactors, characterize the regulation as “complex, protracted and overly opaque.
Philip Tigges, Managing Director of Hamburg-based Infinite Roots, which cultivates fungal root structures in fermenters to produce alternative foods, echoed this sentiment. “We’ve been submitting scientific dossiers to authorities for years, without making significant progress. The process is incredibly frustrating.
Raffael Wohlgensinger, founder and CEO of Berlin-based Formo, which biotechnologically produces milk proteins to create cheese alternatives, expressed similar timing concerns. “We developed our technology here, but we urgently need to commercialize it quickly; each month of waiting costs us valuable time and capital.
To address these concerns, startups are advocating for the implementation of a “sandbox program” modeled after the approach successfully adopted in the Netherlands. This program would allow products to be temporarily and authoritatively monitored while being offered to consumers, enabling a streamlined process alongside the traditional Novel Food approval procedure. Companies like Formo suggest that Germany’s planned Reallabore-Gesetz (Real-Labours Act) could facilitate a similar, risk-mitigated test environment through an “experimental clause” creating a “low-barrier pilot space” that would send strong signals to the industry and attract investor confidence within months.