References
A new protein source for pet food: cultivated meat
Abstract
Cultivated meat is an alternative protein source developed to address the sustainability, public health and animal welfare concerns of conventional meat production. Hundreds of startups and academic institutions worldwide are working to make cultivated meat a cost-effective protein source for humans. However, cultivated meat could also be used to feed dogs and cats, contributing to solving the meat supply issues that the growing pet food market has been facing in recent years. The advantages of using cultivated meat as a protein source for pets would include a reduction of the environmental impact of pets’ diets, decreased farm animal suffering and several benefits in the One Health framework, as cultivated meat-based pet food would significantly decrease the risk of spreading food safety pathogens, zoonotic diseases and resistant bacteria. The antibiotic-free manufacturing process and the aseptic conditions the cells require to grow in the bioreactors lead to these public health advantages. However, cultivated meat has never been produced at scale for human or pet consumption. Several technical challenges need to be overcome to make cultivated meat-based pet food prices accessible to consumers. As a novel ingredient, there is also no evidence of the effect of feeding cultivated meat to dogs and cats. In principle, cultivated meat can be both safe to be consumed long-term and nutritionally adequate – and with several possibilities for nutritional enhancement, potentially even superior to its conventional counterpart. However, the safety and nutritional soundness of cultivated meat-based products must be demonstrated by manufacturers to gain regulatory approval and favour consumer adoption. Veterinarians, veterinary nurses and technicians will play a critical role in the development of this new ingredient in many aspects, including product development, assessing safety and nutrition, conducting research and informing consumers. This review summarises the benefits and challenges of using cultivated meat as a pet food ingredient.
Cultivated meat (also known as cultured, cell-cultured or cell-based meat) is a new, alternative source of protein to feed pets that can allow the formulation of cultivated meat-based diets. Cultivated meat aims to replicate conventionally produced meat and fish through cell and tissue culture by growing just the animal cells of nutritional interest, instead of growing the entire animals (Rubio et al, 2019; Post et al, 2020).
Pet food is a growing market that is responsible for around one-fifth of meat consumption worldwide (Knight, 2023). In the last two decades, demand for pet food-grade animal byproducts rose faster than the supply because of insufficient slaughter offal (Leenstra et al, 2018). The situation is further complicated by the premiumisation and humanisation of dog and cat food, with owners willing to spend more for higher-quality ingredients (Okin, 2017). As a result, around half of the animal ingredients currently used in pet food in the US are fit for human consumption (Knight, 2023). This trend exacerbates the substantial environmental, animal welfare and public health issues related to conventional meat production.
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