In a Small Way, UK Is First European Country To Approve Cultured Meat
The United Kingdom became the first country in Europe to allow cultured/cultivated meat by approving a petition from startup Meatly to use its lab-grown chicken in dog food.
The first batches of pet food to include its cultivated chicken are expected to appear on sale near the end of this year after taste trials are conducted among dogs, according to the Telegraph.
Owen Ensor, Meatly’s co-founder and CEO, said this followed a push from regulators and government to champion food innovation and speed up approval processes after Brexit, according to the Telegraph.
The British newspaper also quoted him as saying, “The European Union has traditionally been a more conservative regulator and the U.S. is getting embroiled in food politics – unnecessarily, in my opinion. So the UK can really step up here.” Meatly was founded in 2022.
Britain becomes the fourth country to approve cultured meat in any form and the only one to authorize it for pet food. Singapore was the first to allow human consumption, in December 2020; the U.S. followed in June 2023 and Israel approved cultured meat this January. In all three countries, there have been restaurant tastings, but no approved company is capable of the quantities needed for an official, wide-scale launch.
Meatly is planning to license its technology to other companies, which may then be able to use it to create meat for human consumption, Ensor told the Telegraph.
