Dogs Can’t Get Enough of Cultivated Meat, Feeding Trials Show

In feeding trials, half of dogs fed Meatly’s cultivated chicken kept licking the bowl after finishing, and a majority enjoyed it more than their regular diet.

Months after receiving regulatory clearance in the UK, Meatly – the London-based startup making cultivated meat for pets – is inching closer to its market launch.

The company has completed feeding trials for its cultivated chicken, which indicate that the product is safe to eat and palatable for dogs. Meatly has also secured an undisclosed sum in fresh funding, adding to the £3.6M it had raised from investors to date. It includes a follow-on investment from retailer Pets at Home, and participation from new backers DSM-Firmenich Venturing, JamJar, and Joyful Ventures, among others.

The capital will support the startup’s plan to launch with its first brand partner in Q1 2025 – this will be in the form of a dog treat product, though the cost and other commercial decisions are “being figured out at the moment”, co-founder and CEO Owen Ensor told Green Queen.

Dogs like cultivated meat as much (or more) than their regular diets

Meatly commissioned two voluntary trials, which were conducted by Treat Therapeutics and featured 31 pet dogs made up of 14 different breeds. The trials involved at-home feeding observations, including surveys with the dog owners to analyse their response to the product and veterinary checks. A complete diet containing only cultivated chicken and plant-based ingredients was tested.

The first trial was a single-day test where the dogs were provided Meatly’s chicken for both meals of the day. The second was a two-week controlled trial where a placebo group was fed just a plant-based diet, and selected dogs were given Meatly chicken for seven consecutive days after an adaptation phase.

According to the company, the dogs were found to enjoy Meatly pet food as much or even more than their normal diet. For example, 75% started their meal immediately or within the first few seconds of being presented with it, and 50% continued licking the bowl after completing it. Meanwhile, 75% of owners reported higher enjoyment than their pet’s baseline diet.

The cultivated chicken also improved the palatability of the plant-based placebo diet, and Meatly found no significant adverse effects of feeding cultivated meat over the 134 recorded meals.

“By collaborating with us on these exclusively home-based trials, Meatly have taken a significant step in validating cell-based meat’s relevance for real-world dogs,” said Treat Therapeutics founder Emmanuel Bijaoui. “The positive trial outcomes from a diverse pool of participants consolidate the potential of cultivated meat as a novel ingredient.”

A big year for Meatly – and cultivated pet food

The trials “confirm the product’s quality”, Meatly said, following the collection of extensive safety and nutritional analysis data over the last two years. Its cultivated chicken is comparable to conventional versions when it comes to the protein profile, containing all essential amino acids in similar quantities, alongside important fatty acids, minerals and vitamins for pet nutrition.

The funding and feeding trials cap off a milestone year for the startup, which became the first company to receive regulatory approval for cultivated meat in Europe in July, after the UK’s Food Standards Agency, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Animal and Plant Health Agency deemed it safe to eat for pets.

Meatly has also created a protein-free culture medium – a mix of nutrients to facilitate the growth of animal cells – that lowers the cost from hundreds of pounds per litre to just £1.

“Protein-free media in biopharma is not kind of new, but in cultivated meat is. And it depends also on the type of cells on the species – some are a bit more challenging than others,” Helder Cruz, Meatly’s co-founder and chief scientific officer, told Green Queen in June. “Depending on the cell types and the species, you can grow them very well, without any protein.”

“We’re incredibly happy with how the trials went. Cultivated meat is still nascent, but we’re very much still working on developing a perfect product for UK pets. But given where we’ve come in the last year, we’re ecstatic with these results today,” Ensor said.

“Dogs will tell you if they don’t like the food you’ve served them – so we’re ecstatic that the pets in this trial enjoy Meatly Chicken even more than we thought they would,” he added. “These results demonstrate that we can feed our pets truly sustainable and kinder meat without compromising on taste or nutritional values.”

Cultivated pet food has had a big year, with Cult Food Science conducting feeding trials in the US in pursuit of regulatory approval for its Noochies! brand, Friends & Family Pet Food Co inking two partnerships to launch stateside and in Singapore, BioCraft Pet Nutrition slashing the cost of its growth media, and Bene Meat Technologies releasing a life-cycle assessment showcasing cultivated meat’s superiority to beef.