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![Cultivated meat is often pitched as a silver bullet - meat without the ethical and environmental baggage. But those approved for human consumption are still like gold dust.
Does pet food then offer a safe, sustainable option for the eco-conscious consumer who can’t quite bring themselves to eat cultured meat? People are already buying into food for their four-legged friends that contains insect protein (another alternative protein most of us are not that keen on), all in the name of ethics and an environmental conscience, so why not chicken cells ‘brewed’ in a bioreactor? There are no fly fatalities either.
“Younger folks are having fewer kids. Instead, they are having pets. And they are spending on their furry friends big time,” wrote Sonalie Figueiras, who runs the Green Queen website which tracks the alternative protein market closer than anyone. “We have been seeing some wins in this sector, especially with cultivated meat pet food [from Meatly] and I predict more to come.”
There is certainly money to be made in pet food. The UK market is the second largest in the world, behind only the US, and was worth £4.1bn last year, according to the Pet Data Report 2024. We share our homes with 13.5 million dogs, for example, spending £2bn on feeding them. And we care more than ever about what we feed them.
However, this search for premium nutrition for our pets is having “unintended consequences” on our environment”, according to the Good Food Institute, a think tank supporting development of alternative proteins. Meat makes up almost half the 10.5 million tonnes of pet food sold in Europe each year, from a mix of meat and animal by-products such as offal and blood.
“The agricultural land used to produce meat and other pet food ingredients is twice as large as the UK,” GFI has noted. “And as the trend towards premium brands continues, those impacts could grow. Premium pet food is 3.3 times worse for the climate than market-leading cat food and 2.3 times worse than market-leading dog food.”
Does cultivated meat therefore make for a compelling concept? David Burrows explores the emerging trends. Read his full feature on Wicked Leeks via the 🔗 in our bio.](https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)