Cultivated duck for foie gras and pâté is one step from the table in Australia and New Zealand. On October 6, the board of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) approved changes to the two countries’ shared food code to permit cell-cultured duck biomass from Gourmey, the Paris-based cultivated meat company, for use “in combination with other ingredients to make products such as foie gras and pâté,” according to the regulator’s application page.
The approval is not yet final. FSANZ notified the Food Ministers’ Meeting on October 13, and ministers now have 60 days to request a review or confirm they will not. The change takes effect on gazettal. FSANZ’s risk assessment, the agency says, “identified no public health or safety concerns associated with either the production cell line or the resulting biomass.”
What was approved
The product is duck cells grown in culture, sold as an ingredient rather than a finished dish. According to vegconomist, which reviewed the FSANZ report, the cells come from a Pekin duck line and are not genetically modified. The ingredient must be named as “cell-cultured” or “cell-cultivated,” and retail packaging may not describe it as “poultry meat.” Seventeen submissions were received during public consultation, including from the Australian Meat Industry Council and the duck producer Luv-a-Duck, and FSANZ approved the application without amendment.
If ministers let it stand, cultivated duck would be the second cell-cultured food permitted in the two countries, after the Sydney company Vow’s cultivated quail. Vow has been serving its quail as parfait and foie gras in Australian restaurants, Green Queen reported last year.
Why chefs should pay attention
Foie gras occupies a singular place in the kitchen: a cornerstone of French gastronomy, and one of the most contested ingredients on any menu because of how it is traditionally produced. Gourmey has built its company around that tension, and it is aiming squarely at fine dining. After Singapore cleared the same duck product in April, Nicolas Morin-Forest, chief executive of Gourmey’s parent company Parima and a Gourmey co-founder, told Green Queen: “Starting with haute cuisine acts as a catalyst for our future product launches, with chefs serving as the best ambassadors to introduce new product categories to consumers.”
No launch date for Australia or New Zealand has been announced, and no restaurant has been named. Gourmey also has applications pending in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the United States, according to vegconomist and Green Queen.
For a running account of where cultivated proteins are actually on the menu, see Santé’s guide, Which Restaurants Serve Lab-Grown Meat? The 2026 Guide.
The Santé Take
Of every cultivated product in development, foie gras is the one with the clearest culinary argument. It is a luxury priced to absorb a new technology’s costs, it is served in small portions, and it is an ingredient many chefs and diners would like to enjoy without the controversy. Approval in a second market strengthens the case. The test is still the one that matters at the pass: whether a cultivated terrine can stand beside a classic torchon, with a glass of Sauternes, and not need an explanation.
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