Meatly partners with Omni to launch first cultivated meat cat food
As an early investor in Meatly, Pets at Home plans to be the first retailer to offer these products in its stores
Cultivated meat company Meatly has claimed it has created the world’s first cans of cat food that use cultivated chicken as the protein source.
The product was created in collaboration with its first brand partner, Omni, a fast-growing novel protein pet food company in the UK, founded by veterinarian Dr Guy Sandelowsky.
This is a significant step in Meatly’s B2B route to market, as it looks to become both the first company in the world to sell cultivated meat for pets, and the first to gain regulatory approval and sell cultivated meat-based products in the UK and Europe.
For Omni, which has achieved more than £2m in sales to date selling dog food crafted from pulse, algae, and yeast protein diets, this first venture into the cultivated meat market comes in the form of canned wet food for cats.
According to Meatly, utilising its cruelty-free chicken ingredient represents a “much-anticipated evolution” of the pet food market as pet food brands, like Omni, look to offer ethical and more environmentally friendly products that are healthier for pets.
It also marks a huge moment for the wider pet food industry, which is growing 7% per annum globally and is expected to be worth £120bn by 2026. However, with this growth, the industry’s environmental impact is increasing rapidly.
22% of the meat currently consumed in the UK is consumed by pets, representing a significant amount of GHG emissions. Meatly addresses this by producing sustainable and nutritious meat, whilst reducing its reliance on industrial agriculture.
Once Meatly’s product has been granted regulatory approval, through partnerships with retailers and manufacturers like Omni, Meatly-produced pet food will be available in shops across the country. As an early investor in Meatly, Pets at Home plans to be the first retailer to offer these products in its stores.
Owen Ensor, co-founder and CEO of Meatly, said: “It is incredibly exciting to see the first ever cans of cultivated pet food fly off the production line. This is a major milestone for cultivated meat globally and shows that we are ready to sell the product.
“As demand continues to grow, with pet food already accounting for 20% of meat produced globally, so too does the industry’s environmental impact. Cultivated meat gives pet parents an easy choice – high quality, tasty, nutritious, and sustainable pet food. We’re thrilled to work with innovative companies like Omni to make this a reality as soon as possible.”
Dr Sandelowsky at Omni, added: “Meatly’s ingredient is incredibly exciting to us at Omni, not only because it represents a virtually infinite, cruelty-free source of meat but also because it can be optimised for health.
“This means more essential vitamins, minerals and omegas, and an elimination of the troublesome components that can be found in traditional meat, such as antibiotic residues. We see the ingredient of particular importance to the cat food market, which lacks credible alternative protein solutions currently.”
