Sydney-based start-up Vow launches cultured foie gras sourced from Japanese quail

Cultured meat company Vow has unveiled “Forged Gras,” a cultivated quail foie gras developed without animal intervention. The product is a play on the French delicacy, which is traditionally made from the liver of a duck or goose.

Production of the controversial dish — which involves force-feeding ducks to increase fat deposits in their liver — is banned in multiple countries.

However, Vow notes that its Forged Gras is not foie gras, as it is conventionally known. The product is the first “fatty liver” experience to be sourced from a small Japanese quail and crafted without animal intervention.

“We are paving a new path for food by using innovative technology to address real challenges around foods that people want but can’t access,” says George Peppou, CEO of Vow.

“The launch of Forged Gras continues our mission to bring scarce or never-before-seen foods to millions but does so in a way that seeks to innovate, not imitate. By fostering culinary imagination, we aim to create something entirely new, unconstrained by the tradition of even the oldest delicacies.”

The future of food?

Vow surveyed 1,000 meat eaters in the US, of which 8% had tasted foie gras, citing lack of availability as the main barrier. About 5% of the respondents said they hadn’t tried the dish due to ethical concerns.

The Australian start-up wants to differentiate Forged Gras from the original dish and offer a new experience with “a bite that introduces a subtle, gamey flavor profile of Japanese quail with the texture of fatty liver.”

Forged Gras and the company’s flagship product, Forged Parfait, are available in restaurants across Singapore and Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, France-based Gourmey filed for approval to sell its cultivated foie gras in five key markets — Singapore, the US, the UK, Switzerland and the EU — this August.

“Luxury and sustainability are increasingly pairing in the food industry, with ‘haute cuisine’ acting as a catalyst for these sustainable and high-quality innovations. This is where we want to introduce our cultivated foods, and it’s going to be the springboard for Gourmey’s future product launches,” Nicolas Morin-Forest, CEO of Gourmey, told Food Ingredients First at the time.