The first food to be made from meat grown in laboratories is expected to reach British shop shelves in 18 months after a joint venture with the institute that created Dolly the cloned sheep and Aim-listed Agronomics.
Agronomics has signed an exclusive deal with Roslin Technologies to create the Good Dog Food business in an effort to address a more sustainable approach to pet food.
It is expected to be the first cultivated meat to reach the UK market.
About 20 per cent all the meat produced on the planet is eaten by pets and there has been growing concern about the impact of livestock on the environment. In the US alone it is estimated that dog and cat food is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 65 million tonnes of CO2.
Cultivated meats are created by taking a biopsy from an animal and replicating the right cells, typically muscle and fat, in protein-rich nutrients to create identical replica tissue. Cellular agriculture takes about 40 days to produce 3,000kg of meat, equivalent to the weight of seven to eight cows, with significantly fewer resources, such as water and energy. It typically takes 28 months to rear a cow before slaughter.
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Jim Mellon, 65, executive director of Agronomics and chairman of Good Dog Food, said: “An untapped sector of the agricultural market is the production of pet food via cellular agriculture. We are delighted to be able to announce our first joint venture in the cultivated meat field, to focus on the production of cultivated pet food. As a dog owner I have been looking for high-quality meat alternatives to provide to my dogs.” He said the venture “may accelerate the introduction of cultivated meat to the broader public.”
The venture will focus on cultivated mince.
Ernst van Orsouw, Roslin Technologies’ chief executive, said: “Combining our joint passion for a more sustainable world and our unique complementary expertise will allow Good Dog Food to become the global leader in cultivated meat-based pet food.”
The joint venture hopes to have the product ready to launch within 18 months and will soon be speaking to retailers about stocking it.
Agronomics is valued at £166.25 million on London’s junior market. It has stakes in other cultivated meat businesses, SuperMeat and Geltor, and Onego, a protein fermentation business that use microbes to produce dairy proteins to make milk without cows.
