Lab-grown chicken from cultivated meat company Meatly has received regulatory approval in the UK.
This approval from the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), the Food Standards Agency (FSA), and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in July allows Meatly to sell its lab-grown chicken to approved pet food manufacturers.
Slaughter-free meat alternatives, such as lab-grown chicken, are being developed globally in response to growing concerns about the ethical and environmental ramifications of animal agriculture. Slaughter-free meat-based pet food is predicted to be popular amongst pet owners and animal lovers who are opposed to animal cruelty. Meatly have demonstrated that their cultivated chicken is free from viruses and bacteria, and that the end product is nutritious, safe, and free from antibiotics, harmful pathogens, GMOs and other impurities.
Meatly’s lab-grown chicken ‘paste’ is created by growing immortalised fertilised chicken cells in bioreactors and providing them the nutrients they need to reproduce indefinitely. A major obstacle in the production of lab-grown meat is the high-cost serum that the meat cells are grown in – containing proteins and other nutrients that cells need to grow. However, with £3.5 million in investment, Meatly has not only achieved regulatory approval in under two years, but has also developed a protein-free growth media which costs less than £1 a litre.
It appears Meatly will focus on scaling up and reducing costs, with hopes to reach industrial volumes in the next 3 years. However, pet food containing Meatly’s lab-grown chicken may be out of the lab (ra) door and onto UK shelves by the end of 2024!
The cost and quality of meat for animal consumption is generally significantly lower than that for human consumption. It is therefore likely that the cost of cultivated meat for pet food will need to dramatically decrease – from the current double figures GBP/Kg – before it is widely adopted as an affordable pet food ingredient.
The stricter regulatory requirements for humans mean that there is still a way to go before the UK joins Singapore, US and Israel in approving lab-grown meat for human consumption. However, the approval of lab-grown chicken for pet food is an exciting milestone for the cultivated meat industry!
