Meatly unveils the world’s first cultivated chicken pet food

The collaboration between Meatly and Omni represents a pioneering effort in the pet food industry by introducing the first wet cat food containing lab-grown chicken. This innovative approach utilizes cellular agriculture techniques to produce real meat without the need for traditional animal farming.

Lab-grown chicken offers a sustainable and ethical alternative to conventional meat production, addressing concerns related to animal welfare, environmental impact, and food security. By incorporating this technology into pet food, Meatly and Omni are catering to the growing demand for high-quality, sustainable pet nutrition.

The introduction of lab-grown chicken in wet cat food demonstrates the potential for innovation in the pet food sector and highlights the industry’s commitment to meeting evolving consumer preferences for healthier and more environmentally friendly products. This collaboration could pave the way for further advancements in alternative protein sources for both pets and humans alike.

Today, Meatly, a cell-cultivated meat company, announced a groundbreaking achievement: the world’s first cans of pet food containing cultivated chicken as the primary protein source. This milestone marks Meatly’s ambition to become the first company globally to offer cultivated meat for pets and to secure regulatory approval to sell cultivated meat-based products in the UK and Europe.

Meatly specializes in producing cultivated chicken and has garnered £3.6 million in investment thus far. With a team of dedicated in-house scientists and experts, Meatly has developed a process that utilizes a single sample of cells extracted from a chicken egg to cultivate high-quality, GMO-free, and antibiotic-free chicken meat.

Similar to the production of yogurt or beer, Meatly nurtures its cells in a controlled environment that regulates temperature and pH balance. By providing essential vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, Meatly ensures optimal growth of the cells until they reach the desired meaty texture and flavor.

Once the cultivated meat is ready, Meatly collaborates with innovative pet food manufacturers like Omni to create delicious and nutritious pet meals. The collaboration with Omni, a leading novel protein pet food company in the UK founded by veterinarian Dr. Guy Sandelowsky, represents Meatly’s first brand partnership.

Founded in 2022, Meatly has been actively engaging with regulatory bodies such as the UK’s Food Standards Agency and the Department for Environment.

Cell-cultivated foods, including lab-grown meat, face significant regulatory hurdles as the industry seeks to navigate complex legal frameworks and gain approval for commercialization. In November of last year, Bene Meat Technologies (BMT) achieved a notable milestone by becoming the first company to receive European Union certification in the European Feed Materials Register for laboratory-grown meat for use in pet food. This certification signals a crucial step forward for BMT, allowing the company to advance product development, scale up production, and ultimately bring its cultivated meat products to market.

However, despite this progress, the cell-cultivated food industry continues to encounter regulatory challenges and delays. In some countries, such as Italy and Romania, there are outright bans on the sale of cell-cultivated meat for human consumption. These regulatory barriers hinder the expansion of the cell-cultivated food sector and present obstacles to market entry for companies operating in this space.

Partnering with Omni represents a strategic solution to the scalability challenges inherent in the production of cell-cultivated meat. Omni, known for its innovative pet food crafted from pulse, algae, and yeast protein, provides Meatly with access to an established manufacturing infrastructure capable of producing pet food at scale—a critical hurdle for novel foods like cell-cultivated meat and mycelium-based products. By leveraging Omni’s manufacturing capabilities, Meatly can effectively meet the growing consumer demand for sustainable pet food, ensuring widespread availability of its cultivated meat products.

The collaboration with Omni also aligns with Meatly’s mission to address the environmental impact of pet food consumption. With pets accounting for 22% of meat consumption in the UK and contributing to significant greenhouse gas emissions, there is a pressing need for sustainable alternatives. Meatly’s production of sustainable, nutritious, and delicious meat offers a promising solution to reduce reliance on industrial agriculture and mitigate the environmental footprint of pet food production. Through this partnership, Meatly aims to revolutionize the pet food industry by offering ethically sourced and environmentally friendly alternatives that cater to the growing demand for sustainable pet nutrition.