Meatly and Omni unveil “world’s first” cultivated pet food

Image credit: Omni

Through a partnership with Omni, Meatly, formerly known as “Good Dog Food”, has unveiled its new cans of pet food made using cultivated chicken as the protein source.

Meatly has shared its goal of becoming the first company in the world to sell cultivated meat for pets and has aims to become the first company to gain regulatory approval and sell cultivated meat-based products in the UK and Europe.

It has been working with Omni, a growing novel protein pet food company in the UK, founded by veterinarian Dr Guy Sandelowsky. So far, Omni claims that it has generated over £2 million in sales selling dog food crafted from pulse, algae, and yeast protein diets.

Now the companies have joined forces to step into the cultivated meat market by creating a canned wet food for cats. Included in the ingredients is Meatly’s cruelty-free chicken.

The pet food market in 2024 has been forecasted to generate a revenue of US $149.90 billion, according to Statista. In fact, it also reports that the market is expected to grow annually by 5.56 percent. With this in mind, Meatly has shared that the industry’s environmental impact is also “increasingly rapidly”.

Examining the pet food market: approaches and alternatives

In fact, Meatly claims that 22 percent of the meat currently consumed in the UK is consumed by pets, something that represents “a significant amount of GHG emissions”.

However, the company has shared that it is addressing this through “producing sustainable, tasty and nutritious meat, whilst reducing our reliance on industrial agriculture”.

Now, Meatly has hopes to bring its products to market “quickly and at affordable prices” and once its product has been granted regulatory approval,

“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 product,” said Owen Ensor, Co-founder and CEO of Meatly.

“As demand continues to grow, with pet food already accounting for 20% percent 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.”

But what do retailers in the pet food sector have to say? David Wainwright, Commercial Director at Pets at Home, explained that the company is “looking forward to being the first retailer to offer their products in our pet care centres.

“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.”