What we know about the latest cultivated pet food partnership in the US
Friends & Family and Novel Farms are working together to launch a new cell-based cat food brand in 2025. GlobalPETS learns more.
Sustainable protein pet food startup, Friends & Family Pet Food (FnF), is partnering with cell-based meat player, Novel Farms, to bring a “new class” of cultivated meat pet food products to the US market.
FnF CEO Joshua Errett tells GlobalPETS that they will launch the new product in California as they are amongst the top spenders in the pet category within the United States.
“Since cultivated ingredients will inevitably sell at a premium, at least at the onset, you really can’t get much better than right here in the Golden State,” he admits.
This partnership follows FnF’s recent collaboration with Singaporean cultivated seafood company Umami Bioworks to create cultivated fish-based cat treats.
Retailing revolution
Prototyping of the new product is set to begin in 2025, with both companies already in touch with the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine for regulatory approval.
The collaboration aims to create a “one-to-one” to what’s already commercially available.
“In any retail setting, if a consumer sees one chicken-based pet food for one price, and a cultivated chicken-based pet food for twice that price, and there is no difference other than sustainability claims, cultivated has no future,” warns Errett.
Novel Farms uses microbial fermentation to create cell-based quail, chicken, pork and mouse meat specially formulated for cats and dogs. FnF has expertise in collaborating with companies to optimize ingredients for pet health, focusing on lowering saturated fat and increasing amino acid levels.
Big ambitions
Looking beyond California, Errett shares ambitions for global expansion, aiming to reduce “the climate burden” of pet food by minimizing international meat transport.
“I want to launch and have operations anywhere there are pets, and thus pet food consumers. It makes little sense to be importing and exporting meat for pet foods all over the world – it simply adds to the climate burden of pet food,” Errett notes.
He admits that establishing “localized” operations, partners and manufacturing will help the company reach its sustainability goals and support a broader market reach for its nutritionally advanced pet food.
“We are working hard to create a demonstrable nutritional advantage to our cultivated offerings – nutrition that no conventional meat, insect or plant-based brand can achieve. To do that, we need to do some foundational work in the lab to create something that is 10x what’s currently out there,” Joshua Errett concludes.
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