Certainly! Lab-grown meat has made significant strides, and it’s not just for humans. Our furry companions are also getting a taste of this futuristic cuisine. Here’s the scoop:
- Cultivated Pet Food Approval:
- Czech startup Bene Meat Technologies has achieved a world-first milestone by receiving the inaugural license from the EU to sell cultivated pet food. This pet food is made from cells taken from living animals.
- After extraction, these cells are placed in a bioreactor and grown into muscle tissue. The resulting flesh is then shaped into the desired form.
- The process has several potential benefits: it could reduce emissions, prevent animal suffering, and create meat that’s indistinguishable from farmed produce.
- Market Potential: McKinsey predicts that the cultivated meat market could reach $25 billion by 20301.
- Why Focus on Pets?:
- Bene Meat’s strategy is to target our four-legged friends. Here’s why:
- Cost: Cultivated meat is expensive to develop, but Bene Meat aims to offer competitive costs. They plan to price their pet food similarly to existing premium pet food ingredients.
- Product Demand: Pet food supply chains faced disruptions during the pandemic, leading to rising costs. Consumers are increasingly concerned about pet food quality.
- Ethical and Sustainable: Cultured meat provides a rich source of protein that’s natural for pets while being more ethical and sustainable compared to traditional animal-based products.
- Bene Meat’s strategy is to target our four-legged friends. Here’s why:
- Quality and Mystery:
- Bene Meat is confident about the quality of their product, although they’re reticent about revealing specifics.
- The registered product is described as “cultivated cells of mammalian origin.” Authorities and manufacturers have access to all necessary details.
- The exact animal source remains a mystery for now, but we’ll find out once the products hit the shelves — which could happen as early as 2024.
- Texture: Scientist say that it is relatively easy to create the right taste and smells but it is harder to create the correct texture.
- Ensor of the company Meatly (see UK below) says that the pâté product “is a natural starting point for cultivated meat because at the moment consumers are more willing to give this to their pets than eat it themselves.”
So, your pets might soon enjoy lab-grown meat, contributing to a more sustainable and compassionate future! 🐾🌱.
In the UK it takes two years to get new lab-cultivated foods for humans approved by the authorities as there are more protections in place for humans compared to animals.

UK
In The Sunday Times today there is an extensive article about lab-grown meat being created by a firm run by a vegan. He will use cells from an egg to create a chicken dish for your cat. Not a single animal will be harmed.
Price: The product looks certain to hit the shelves in the not-too-distant future. A 150 g tin will sell for £1. The product is made by a company called Meatly. The founder and chief executive of Meatly is Owen Ensor.
Appeal: Lab grown meat will appeal to people who want to provide a cat with high quality pet food without damaging the environment and killing animals. Its success is being monitored.
Global market: It’s believed that the global market for cultivated meat will be worth US$25 billion by 2030.
America: In America two companies, Upside Foods in Berkeley, California and Eat Just in San Francisco have arrived at the point where they are selling lab-grown meat.
Third company: Ensor says that they will be the third company in the world to sell lab-grown meat. He has raised £3.6 millions of investment.
Taste: Ensor is a vegan and he says that the meat tastes like chicken. He has fed it to his rescue cats and he says that they enjoy it.
The process
This comes from The Sunday Times.
- Chicken cells are extracted from a hen’s egg.
- Vitamins, minerals and amino acids are added.
- The cells are replicated in a bioreactor. They do this in a process similar to yoghurt-making.
- The resulting chicken product is a sort of pâté which is added to vegetables and pulses then canned.
RELATED: Cat food is ultra-processed. This kind of food risks diabetes, cancer and depression in people
Sources: other than The Sunday Times, the sources are a range of internet websites selected by Bing’s copilot.