UK approves lab-grown meat for pets

The United Kingdom is poised to become the first country in Europe to allow so-called lab-grown meat to be available commercially, after the government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and animal feed regulator the Animal and Plant Health Agency approved its use in pet food.

Manufacturer Meatly hopes to have its chicken products, which are cultivated and grown in vats, on sale before the end of the year.

Israel, Singapore and the United States have already passed the products as fit for human consumption. That has not yet happened anywhere in Europe, but this is the first step toward its possibility.

"The European Union typically has much longer and much more complex regulatory processes," the company's CEO Owen Ensor told the Financial Times newspaper. "I think that's one of the things that's very exciting about this approval. It shows the intention of the UK to be positioned as a leader in these new innovative fields and in food technology."

Meatly's website describes a three-stage production process. First, sample cells are taken from a chicken egg — the only animal product used anywhere in the process. All the necessary vitamins, minerals, and amino acids required for growth, which would normally be created by animals eating plants, are then added to help the cells grow, and finally they are nurtured in a controlled environment, "just the same as making yogurt or beer".

Pet food reportedly accounts for 20 percent of global meat production, which is why sustainable, cruelty-free sources would be such a significant step forward.

The journey toward product approval took place under the auspices of the old Conservative Party government before it was replaced by the Labour Party at the recent general election, but the Green Queen website quoted Ensor as saying he did not expect this to affect the process.

"I think we're far enough down the line that the pathway has been established. And we're now in the more nitty-gritty aspects of site inspections and that kind of stuff," he said.

Leading retailer Pets at Home was an early investor in Meatly and is expected to be the first sales outlet stocking the product.

"While it is still early days, we are committed to helping drive change in the industry, and finding sustainable alternatives to replace some of the protein used globally in pet food would be a major step forward," said David Wainwright, commercial director of Pets at Home.