Lab-grown pet food is to hit UK shelves as Britain becomes the first country in Europe to approve cultivated meat.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have approved the product from the company Meatly.
It is thought there will be demand for cultivated pet food, as animal lovers face a dilemma about feeding their pets meat from slaughtered livestock.
Research suggests the pet food industry has a climate impact similar to that of the Philippines, the 13th most populous country in the world. A study by the University of Winchester found that 50% of surveyed pet owners would feed their pets cultivated meat, while 32% would eat it themselves.
The Meatly product is cultivated chicken. It is made by taking a small sample from a chicken egg, cultivating it with vitamins and amino acids in a lab, then growing cells in a container similar to those in which beer is fermented. The result is a paté-like paste.
Meatly’s production facility has been approved by the government to handle its cultivated chicken, and it plans to launch the first samples of its commercially available pet food this year. The company says it will then focus on cost reduction and starting to scale production to reach industrial volumes within the next three years. The cost reductions could be done by mixing the meat with vegetables, as is done with other pet foods containing costly animal products.
It has raised £3.5m from investors so far and expects to raise £5m in its next fundraising round.
The previous UK government had been looking at fast-tracking the approval of cultivated meat for human consumption. The Food Standards Agency has said it is trying to find a way to bypass the long process of regulating a food product and bringing it to market, something the Conservative government was pushing for as a “Brexit benefit”.
Linus Pardoe, UK policy manager at the Good Food Institute Europe, said: “The UK is a world leader in developing cultivated meat and the approval of a cultivated pet food is an important milestone. It underscores the potential for new innovation to help reduce the negative impacts of intensive animal agriculture.
“The first UK applications for cultivated meat produced for humans remain under assessment with the Food Standards Agency. If we’re to realise the full potential benefits of cultivated meat – from enhancing food security to supporting the expansion of regenerative farming – the government must invest in the research and infrastructure needed to make it delicious, affordable and accessible for people across the UK.”
Other approaches vary significantly, and countries including Singapore and Israel have approved products for human consumption. However, in the US the states of Florida and Alabama have banned cultivated meat, with politicians having complained that the products threaten livestock farmers.
