On 27 December 2024, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development of South Africa published the draft Regulations for the Proposed Sale of Meat Analogues in South Africa through the Official Gazette for comment within 30 days from the date of publication of the Gazette. Main content: The draft regulation includes definitions and scope, general standards, packaging and marking, sampling analysis, and name appendices.

(1) General standards: raw materials suitable for human consumption; Subject to Article 4 (2), does not contain any substance or foreign substance not normally classified as meat analogues; In the case of meat substitute products, the protein content is at least 16%; Free of ingredients and additives of animal origin and allowing the addition of eggs, milk and honey when making a vegetarian declaration in accordance with the provisions of the Food, Transfers and Disinfectants Act 1972;

(2) Packaging, container and other requirements: the packaging container should be a single material, clean, sealed, strong and not easy to deform, and will not produce bad taste and flavor;

(3) Label identification: unless otherwise specified, all marks should be represented by letters of at least 1㎜ in size; The outer package label containing more than one small package should indicate the name, address, country of origin (except transparent packaging) and batch information; There should be descriptive names in front of the product name, such as "plant", "vegan", etc., and processed meat products and animal species names should not be indicated in the name;

(4) Appendix such as penalty clauses and names of meat analogues;

(5) This regulation shall be implemented for 12 months from the date of its official publication.

For more details see: https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202412/51820gon5730.pdf