World’s first cultivated meat pet product goes on sale in the UK

Since last week, Pets at Home has been offering the cultivated meat pet treat at its store in Brentford, London, marking the first commercial test for Meatly, which produced the artificial meat product in collaboration with plant-based player THE PACK.

Lab-grown meat has created significant buzz in both human and pet food circles but has yet to become a widespread commercial success. Meatly’s test launch could be the first step in changing how pets consume protein.

Now, Pets at Home shoppers’ pets can try Chick Bites, a chicken-like snack that combines Meatly’s cultivated meat with THE PACK’s plant products.

“We’re incredibly excited to introduce cultivated meat to the pet world,” Meatly’s Founding CEO Owen Ensor said. “Just two years ago, this felt like a moonshot. 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.”

How it works

Meatly grows its meat from chicken egg cell samples, meaning it’s real meat with no farming required. The company became the first in Europe to gain approval when the UK government greenlit the product last year.

The Brentford location will sell around 750 pouches of the Chick Bites as part of the “limited run.” It’s not yet clear if or when more will be in stock.

Market viability

The company has managed to reduce the costs of its culture media, the substance that encourages chicken cell growth, from hundreds of pounds to only £1 ($1.24/€1.20) per liter. This breakthrough makes the technology significantly easier to scale for profit.

Meatly made significant progress toward commercialization in 2024, striking a deal with Omni to produce a lab-meat cat product.

Disruption incoming

While Meatly is the first in Europe to commercialize lab-grown meat, it’s not likely to be the last. Friends & Family Pet Food Company, based in California, has already partnered with a lab-grown seafood company in Singapore to create cat treats. Canadian company Further Foods has been working on cultivated meat cat treats with the Noochies! brand.

While it’s unclear when more products will hit shelves, commercialized lab-grown meat has been hotly anticipated by vegan and vegetarian groups, environmentalists and scientists.

THE PACK’s CEO called the Chick Bites launch a “watershed moment” for the 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.”

It is believed that roughly 20% of the UK’s meat and 10% of farmed animal meat in the US currently go toward pet food.