This week’s EU approval for the sale of Prague-based Bene Meat’s cultivated meat for pet food represents a major milestone in the development of the cultivated meat market, food awareness organisation, ProVeg International, said today.

“We are delighted to see the EU take a pioneering role in the field of cultivated meat and issue the very first approval for the production and sale of cultivated meat for pets,” Jasmijn de Boo, ProVeg CEO, said.

“As the plant-based pet food space grows, this regulatory approval of cultivated pet food will be complementary in phasing out conventional meat for feeding our cats and dogs. This will help to greatly relieve the huge burden that the conventional animal agriculture industry places on the environment in terms of carbon emissions, as well as pollution and biodiversity loss,” de Boo added.

Bene Meat, a Czech company that presented at the ProVeg New Food Forum in 2022, is the first EU cultivated meat company to have clearance to produce cultivated meat for sale as pet food under the European Feed Materials Register.

Analysis of a survey published in the journal PLOS ONE in 2022 found that a significant market for cultivated pet food exists, especially among vegan and vegetarian pet owners.

The pet food space has been taking a central stage in the past months, following the publication of two studies: one highlighting the environmental sustainability of vegan diets for pets, and the other evidencing the viability of cats having healthy lives on vegan diets.