Your dog can now eat lab grown meat as unique product on sale in UK in 'world first'
Your dog can now eat lab grown meat as unique product on sale in UK in 'world first'
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Pets at Home has launched a world-first dog treat made from cultivated meat, known as Chick Bites. The innovative snack is created using plant-based ingredients and lab-grown meat, which eliminates the need for animal rearing or slaughter. Meatly, the company behind the product, claims that the chicken used in the treats comes from cells taken from a single egg, with the potential to produce enough cultivated meat to feed pets indefinitely.
They assure that the meat is as tasty and nutritious as traditional chicken breast, packed with all the essential amino acids, critical fatty acids, minerals and vitamins necessary for pet health. In a landmark move last July, the UK became the first European country to approve cultivated meat for pet food use, with Meatly's chicken getting the green light from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Animal and Plant Health Agency. Pets at Home, an investor in Meatly, believes it's the first company globally to offer cultivated meat pet food for sale.
A limited batch of Chick Bites is now available at the Brentford, London branch of Pets at Home. The retailer touts the snack as a nutritious, healthy, and sustainable alternative to conventional dog treats. Meatly has announced plans to secure funding for scaling up production and making its lab-grown chicken more widely available within the next three to five years. The company is set to deepen its partnership with The Pack, which supplies plant-based ingredients, and Pets at Home.
Meatly's founding chief executive Owen Ensor said: "We’re incredibly excited to introduce cultivated meat to the pet world. "Just two years ago this felt like a moon shot. Today we take off. It’s a giant leap forward, toward a significant market for meat which is healthy, sustainable and kind to our planet and other animals.". Anja Madsen, Pets at Home chief operating officer, said: "We are thrilled to be working with Owen and the team to provide cultivated meat pet food products to our customers for the first time in the world.
"This innovation has the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of pet food and will be a game-changer for the industry.". Damien Clarkson, chief executive of The Pack, also commented on the milestone: "The launch of our Chick Bites treats is a watershed moment for the pet food industry. Cultivated meat offers a tasty, low-carbon and healthy protein source which has the potential to eliminate farmed animals from the pet food industry.".
