The UK has become the first European country to approve the sale of lab-grown meat – not for humans, but for cats and dogs.
UK-based company Meatly is now authorized to sell pet food products containing cultivated chicken, according to an announcement on their website. They hope to start selling the product later this year and plan to scale up their operations to reach industrial volumes in the next three years.
Their process starts with a small sample of cells taken from a chicken egg, which are then fostered in an incubator that controls variables like temperature and acidity. They also provide the cells with vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, allowing them to grow until they become meat.
The main drive to produce lab-grown meat is to reduce the impact of industrial farming on the natural world. By some estimates, agriculture is directly responsible for up to 8.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions globally with a further 14.5 percent coming from land-use change associated with farming (like deforestation).
It’s unclear how much pet food contributes to this burden, although some evidence suggests it could be considerable. One study indicated that dog and cat food produces around 33.56 kg CO2eq/1,000 kcal for wet food and 4.25 kg CO2eq/1,000 kcal for dry pet food. For context, further research implied that pet food emissions in the US are around 25 to 30 percent of emissions associated with US meat consumption.
Lab-grown meat is also an attractive prospect for people who are concerned with the treatment of farm animals, but don’t necessarily want to feed tofu to their little carnivorous companion.
“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,” Jim Mellon, Founder of Agronomics, an investor in Meatly, said in the announcement.
“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,” commented Owen Ensor, CEO of Meatly.
Despite its pros, cultivated meat isn’t always an easy idea to sell. A handful of European nations have stood in opposition to the rise of lab-grown meat. Last year, Italy banned the sale of cell-cultivated meat in a bid to safeguard the country’s rich food heritage and, in their words, protect their citizen’s health.
While some people might turn their noses up at a lab-grown burger, the thought of cultivated meat in pet food is considerably less controversial among most people.
A study from the UK in 2022 found that about 40 percent of meat-eaters would consume cultivated meat, but around 81 percent of them would feed it to their pets. Out of the vegans and vegetarians who would not consume cultivated meat themselves, a majority (around 62 percent and 56 percent, respectively) said that they would still feed it to their pets.
Source Link: Lab-Grown Meat For Pet Food Is Coming To The UK In European First