(Bloomberg) -- Impossible Foods Inc. has made it past the first hurdle in a protracted process to sell its plant-based burger in the European Union, the world’s biggest alternative-meat market.
The European Food Safety Authority has ruled that soy leghemoglobin, an additive in the Impossible Burger known as ‘heme,’ doesn’t raise safety concerns at the proposed use and level of use, according to a filing. The ingredient helps the burger taste and smell like meat and is derived from a genetically modified yeast strain Komagataella phaffii, formerly named Pichia pastoris.
The decision by the EU’s food-safety watchdog marks a first milestone for Impossible Foods in Europe, where it’s been seeking regulatory approval to sell its burger since late 2019. Europe is the largest market for plant-based meat and seafood alternatives with consumers more receptive than their US counterparts.
The food-safety opinion remains provisional subject to an ongoing safety assessment by a panel that studies genetically modified foods, the EFSA said.
The company’s application, filed in 2019, is currently under a “clock stop,” meaning that it needs to supply additional information to complete the evaluation, according to the EFSA.
A spokesperson for Redwood City, California-based Impossible, did not respond to requests for comment.
Impossible began selling its faux chicken nuggets and sausages in the UK in 2022, making those products without heme. The UK, which left the EU in 2020, continues to largely follow the same regulatory framework as the bloc.
Authorities in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore have ruled heme is safe for human consumption, or it raised no public health and safety concerns. However, the European Commission has some of the most extensive food safety requirements, according to Katia Merten-Lentz, partner at Food Law Science & Partners in Brussels.
Still the EFSA ruling on ‘heme’ represents “a great sign that the European market remains accessible for any food business operator eager to properly comply with the EC requirements,” she said.
--With assistance from Deena Shanker.
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