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The UK is set to become the first country in Europe to commercialise ‘lab-grown’ meat after regulators approved chicken cultivated from animal cells for use in pet food.
Meatly will begin selling its cultivated or cultured chicken to manufacturers as early as this year.
The UK start-up’s CEO and co-founder Owen Ensor said getting approval in the UK had a window of opportunity thanks both to Brexit, which allows divergence from EU regulations, and to the last government’s emphasis on biotech and innovation.
“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,” Ensor said.
Meatly won regulatory approval from the Animal and Plant Health Agency, which regulates animal feed, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Unlike plant-based meat products which are made from soyabean or pea protein, cultivated meat is made from animal cells grown in vats. The UK has yet to approve the products for human consumption though Israel, Singapore and the US have already done so.
“The EU typically has much longer and much more complex regulatory processes,” said Ensor, adding that it was faster to get a cultivated meat product approved solely for pet consumption.
James Cooper, deputy director of food policy at the Food Standards Agency, said: “The FSA welcomes innovations by the animal feed sector for using alternative materials such as cell-cultivated products (CCP) if this is done safely and as required by law.
“The safety of such products, including pet food which is regulated as an animal feed, remains paramount and the FSA closely monitors any new product coming on to the market.”
Ensor described pet food as the natural starting point for the cultivated meat market.
Demand was clear because of the “animal lover’s paradox”, in which a pet owner who loves animals and opposes animal cruelty is more relaxed about what they feed their pets, he noted.
A study by the University of Winchester found that 50 per cent of surveyed pet owners would feed their pets cultivated meat and 32 per cent would eat it themselves.
Advances in cell-cultivated meat have prompted vehement opposition in countries such as Italy, France and Austria, and outright bans in the US states of Florida and Alabama. They argue, alongside the meat industry, that the technology endangers livestock farming.
Republican lawmakers in seven states have moved to ban the sale or distribution of lab-grown meat. In the US, cultivated chicken was on the menu of two restaurants but has since been removed.
“I think the politicisation of food is really dangerous,” said Ensor. “Cultivated meat might be one of the first foods ever that has been banned for political reasons, not because of health and safety or ethical concerns.”
Over the past decade, start-ups creating alternatives to meat in response to concerns about agricultural emissions have increased hugely in number.
Animal agriculture produces up to a fifth of planet-warming emissions, with meat consumption slated to grow up to 50 per cent by 2050, according to the UN Environment Programme.
Meatly has raised £3.5mn to date and said its facility would reach industrial volumes within three years. It expects to raise a further £5mn in its next fundraising round.
Its largest investors include incubator Agronomics, and investor Jim Mellon, who is a board director. Former Conservative food tsar Henry Dimbleby also sits on the board.
A handful of cultivated-meat start-ups, including Aleph Farms, Upside Food and Eat Just, have won regulatory approval and are raising investment to build capacity.
However, the firms are struggling to grow as they contend with a weak economic outlook and a lack of funding following a boom before the pandemic.
Investment in cultivated meat and seafood companies plunged from $922.3mn in 2022 to $225.9mn globally in 2023, according to trade group the Good Food Institute.
Aleph Farms laid off 30 per cent of its 100-strong work force last month, mainly in Israel, after announcing it had invested in a new production facility in Thailand.
Upside Food has also begun its second round of lay-offs this year, to “stay agile in the face of an uncertain macro environment.”