London-based Meatly’s cultivated chicken has debuted at Pets At Home in the UK, as part of a hybrid dog treat made by vegan pet food startup The Pack.
British pet owners can now buy cultivated chicken for their furry friends, in what is a global first for the alternative protein industry.
Starting February 7, leading pet retailer Pets at Home’s Brentford store will stock dog treats made from a blend of Meatly’s cultivated chicken and plant-based ingredients from The Pack.
Called Chick Bites, the oven-baked treats come in 50g pouches and cost £3.49, and the limited run means around 750 units will be available initially.
The launch has been eagerly anticipated ever since Meatly received approval from UK regulators to sell its cultivated meat for pets last July. The startup had revealed last year that it would enter the market through Pets at Home – one of Meatly’s largest investors – while vegan pet food maker The Pack had hinted at a move into cultivated meat months earlier.
Chick Bites ‘a giant leap forward’
Meatly’s innovation is derived from a single sample of chicken cells, which – combined with its technology – can produce enough meat “to feed pets forever”, according to the food tech startup. The cells are fed on a mix of nutrients that facilitate their growth, and nurtured in a container that controls temperature and acidity.
The resulting cultivated chicken breast contains all essential amino acids, critical fatty acids, vitamins and minerals needed for pet health, while being more sustainable and just as palatable.
Feeding trials carried out by the company have shown that half of the dogs who ate its meat continued to lick the bowl after finishing it, and three-quarters of pet owners reported higher enjoyment than their dogs’ baseline diet.
“Just two years ago, this felt like a moonshot. Today, we take off,” Meatly co-founder and CEO Owen Ensor said of the launch. “It’s a giant leap forward – toward a significant market for meat, which is healthy, sustainable and kind to our planet and other animals.”
Pets at Home, which is the UK’s largest pet retailer with over 450 stores, said its investment in Meatly demonstrates its commitment to the planet. “We’re always looking to the future of pet care, and to make sure we’re developing and providing the products that matter to our customers,” said COO Anja Madsen Madsen.
Meeting the demand for sustainable pet food
“This innovation has the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of pet food and will be a game-changer for the industry,” Madsen added.
Meatly – which has signed up to the newly released C-Label certification – has previously cited research suggesting that pets account for 22% of the UK’s meat consumption, which is more than what British children eat every year. Meanwhile, labradors – the most popular pet dogs in the country – consume 70 million kg of meat annually, nearly 60% more than their owners.
Cultivated chicken presents consumers with a more planet-friendly option to feed their four-legged friends. Global polling has shown that 51% of consumers have switched brands or products due to environmental worries – a number that rises to 56% for millennials and 58% for Gen Zers.
When it comes to pet food, 58% of consumers across age groups switch items or companies out of sustainability concerns, and 54% are happy to pay a premium on eco-friendly products for their pets. This sentiment has deepened over the last few years, with over a third (36%) of consumers saying they were more likely to pay more for sustainable pet food in 2024 than three years prior.
Meatly plans fundraise to scale up production
Meatly indicates that its launch with The Pack and Pets at Home is just a start. “We’ll scale our production and make products more widely available to consumers,” said Ensor.
The company recently secured an undisclosed sum of funding to add to the £3.6M it had already raised to date, and now plans to attract more investment to help scale up production. “Despite only raising 1% of total European cultivated meat investment, we are the first company to sell cultivated meat in both the UK and EU,” noted the CEO. “We’re proving the potential of cultivated meat, and that there is an efficient and cost-effective route to market.”
Meatly is planning further small releases before expanding production to make the chicken more broadly available in the next three to five years, and has further collaborations planned with both Pets at Home and The Pack.
“Cultivated meat offers a tasty, low-carbon, and healthy protein source, which has the potential to eliminate farmed animals from the pet food industry,” said The Pack co-founder and CEO Damien Clarkson, who called the release of the Chick Bites a “watershed moment”.
Meatly has previously partnered with Omni to market its cultivated chicken for cats, before it pivoted to the dog food focus. “I’ve fed it to my cats several times and they love it,” Ensor told Green Queen in July. The company is now looking to conduct feeding trials for felines as well.
The cultivated pet food sector has made headlines of late. Cult Food Science conducted feeding trials in the US in pursuit of regulatory approval for its Noochies! brand, Friends & Family Pet Food Co inked two deals to launch stateside and in Singapore, BioCraft Pet Nutrition slashed the cost of its growth media, and Bene Meat Technologies released a life-cycle assessment proving cultivated meat’s superiority to beef.
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