image source, Getty Images
- Author, Harrison Jones
- Role, BBC news
The UK has become the first European country to approve the addition of lab-grown meat to pet food.
Regulators have approved the use of chicken grown from animal cells that lab-grown meat company Meatly plans to sell to manufacturers.
The company says that the first samples of its product will go on sale this year, but it would only expand its production to industrial volumes in the next three years.
No applications for cell cultured products for human consumption have been authorized in the UK.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) welcomed the move and said it closely monitors any new product that comes onto the market.
Lab-grown meat has proved a divisive issue in some countries, with supporters pointing to environmental and animal welfare benefits, while critics say it is expensive and could have a negative impact on farmers.
Question marks remain over the long-term future of the product. Global investment in the cultured meat and seafood industry has fallen dramatically in 2023 to less than a third of what it was a year earlier, according to a report by the Good Food Institute.
It’s unclear what interest there would be in lab-grown meat for pets and what impact it would have on the current pet food market. According to research firm Kantar, 1.2 billion packets of pet food have been bought in UK supermarkets so far this year.
Meatly CEO Owen Ensor said his company was proving there was a safe and cheap way to bring cultured meat to market quickly.
“Pet parents are crying out for a better way to feed their cats and dogs meat – we’re so excited to meet that demand,” he said.
Mr Ensor said owners could soon give their pets “the real meat they need and want, in a way that’s kinder to our planet and other animals”.
Since the first lab-grown burger was unveiled in London in 2013 – costing more than £250,000 to create – dozens of companies around the world have joined the race to bring affordable cultured meat to market for people and pets.
Unlike plant substitutes, meat is a farmed alternative to farm animals. This process often involves extracting cells from the animal, which are then fed nutrients such as protein, sugars and fats.
The cells divide and grow and can then be placed in bioreactors that act as a fermentation tank. They are often “harvested” weeks later, mixed with vegetable proteins, and then molded and cooked.
Scientists say pressures on the planet can be reduced by eating more “green foods” – such as ground-up insects or lab-grown meat – compared to the typically meat- and dairy-rich European diet.
In Singapore, regulators allowed the sale of lab-grown meat in restaurants in December 2020. The United States and Israel have also approved products for human consumption.
People eating lab-grown meat has become a controversial topic in the US and other countries.
In the UK, there has been less public debate about the issue – and approval has only been granted for pet food, not for human consumption.
Meatly says its product testing has included proving its cultured chicken is free of bacteria and viruses, that the nutrients used to grow the cells are safe, and that the final meat product is safe, nutritious and free of GMOs, antibiotics, harmful bacteria, heavy metals and other impurities.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency – part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – gave the product approval.
James Cooper, the FSA’s deputy director of food policy, said the organization welcomes innovation in the use of alternative materials such as cell-cultured products in animal feed “as long as it is done safely and as required by law”.
“The safety of such products, including pet food, remains paramount and the FSA closely monitors any new product that comes to market,” Cooper said.
Sarah Hormozi, head of science and education at UK Pet Food – a recently joined Meatly association – said cultured meat, insects and other new proteins are “timely and welcome” as “demand for dietary protein continues to grow with increasing pressure. on environmental resources’.
She added that UK Pet Food is supporting further research to ensure that new proteins “are fit for purpose, nutritionally appropriate and safe for the species for which they are intended, before they are made more cost-effective and affordable”.