The UK’s Meatly, previously Good Dog Food, announces that it has received regulatory clearance from relevant UK Government departments to produce and sell cultivated meat for pet food, making it the first company in the country to obtain such authorization.
The company explains that its cultivated chicken has undergone extensive testing and has been confirmed free from bacteria, viruses, GMOs, antibiotics, harmful pathogens, heavy metals, and other impurities. Its production facility has also been approved to produce and handle its cultivated chicken.
“Pet parents are crying out for a better way to feed their cats and dogs meat – we’re so excited to meet this demand”
Meatly has successfully developed and manufactured the UK’s first cultivated chicken product for cats, Omni Feast, with its first commercial partner, the plant-based pet food company Omni.
With this approval, the first samples will be launched in the UK later this year, making it the first cultivated pet food sold in Europe.
Meatly CEO Owen Ensor shares: “Today marks a significant milestone for the European cultivated meat industry. We’re delighted to have worked proactively alongside the UK’s regulators to showcase that Meatly chicken is safe and healthy for pets.
“Pet parents are crying out for a better way to feed their cats and dogs meat – we’re so excited to meet this demand. We can now continue our mission to give consumers an easy choice – ensuring we can feed our beloved pets the real meat they need and crave, in a way that is kinder to our planet and other animals.”
Regulatory process for pet food
Meatly’s approval, under the UK’s animal by-products regulations, was granted following a collaborative process with the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).
The Good Food Institute Europe explains that the approval process for animal by-products (pet food) in the UK is quicker and less stringent than that for the novel food system used for human consumption.
Novel foods such as cultivated meat must be assessed by Food Standards Agency (FSA) risk analysts and signed off by an independent committee and a health minister. Meatly’s cultivated chicken pet food is not approved for human consumption.
With this approval, Meatly joins Czech biotech startup Bene Meat Technologies in a quest to revolutionise Europe’s pet food industry with sustainable proteins.
Bene Meat Technologies, which presented its first cultivated pet food product for the European market earlier this year at Interzoo, claims to be the first company to have self-registered in the European Feed Register, the standard process for introducing new feed ingredients to the EU market.
Linus Pardoe, UK Policy Manager at the Good Food Institute Europe, shares: “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.”
A landmark for animals
Founded in 2022, Meatly has raised £3.6 million to develop cultivated meat products for dogs and cats, targeting a growing market of environmentally conscious pet owners.
The biotech company’s cultivated chicken promises high-quality, GMO-free, antibiotic-free, and foetal bovine serum-free meat at affordable prices while significantly reducing the environmental impact compared to traditional factory farming.
Meatly claims to have developed a protein-free media that costs less than £1 a litre. This allows the company to reduce production costs and reach price parity with conventional meat. With this milestone, the company targets scaling production to reach industrial volumes in the next three years.
Jim Mellon, founder of Agronomics, an investor in Meatly, added: “Meatly’s regulatory approval is a landmark event for the industry. Our pets consume huge amounts of meat every day and so this development can play a crucial part in reducing the emissions, resource consumption, and animal suffering caused by traditional meat production.”
