UK Becomes 1st European Country to Approve Lab-Grown Meat

Chickens gather around a feeder at a farm in a file photo. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Britain has become the first country in Europe to approve the sale of lab grown meat, following the approval of cultivated pet food by UK regulatory agencies.

Pet food start-up Meatly has been cleared to produce and handle its cultivated chicken and is planning to launch the first samples of its commercially available pet food this year.

After it received the approval of UK regulatory bodies in under two years of operation, Meatly said it was a “significant milestone for the European cultivated meat industry.”

“I’m incredibly proud that Meatly is the first company in Europe to get the green light to sell cultivated meat,” said Meatly CEO Owen Ensor, in a statement.

Backed by £3.5 million in investment, the company passed “rigorous” inspections by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

Meatly said it will continue to adhere to APHA’s ongoing inspections and plans to start scaling production to reach industrial volumes in the next three years.

Cultured Meat

Cultivated meat, or cultured meat, is genuine animal meat that is produced by cultivating animal cells directly. Stem cells from animals are grown in labs at high densities and volumes. They are fed nutrients and supplemented with growth factors and other proteins.

Lab-grown meat eliminates the need to raise farm animals for food.

“Our pets consume huge amounts of meat every day and so this development can play a crucial part in reducing the emissions, resource consumption, and animal suffering caused by traditional meat production,” said Jim Mellon, founder of Agronomics, an investor in Meatly.

A statement by Meatly said that its cultivated chicken is safe and healthy for pets. It stressed that Meatly’s lab-grown meat is free from bacteria, viruses, GMOs, antibiotics, harmful pathogens, heavy metals, and other impurities.

Cultivated meat for human consumption hasn’t yet been approved in the UK. In 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave two producers the green light to start producing and selling their lab-grown chicken-like products, making the United States the second country in the world, after Singapore, to allow the sale of synthetic “meat” grown from animal cells.

There are at least 23 cultivated meat companies working to develop their products in the UK.

According to research by the Good Food Institute, Britain needs to invest £390 million in alternative proteins between 2025 and 2030 to remain competitive globally.

Since 2012, UK Research and Innovation has invested around £43 million in research and development for plant-based, fermentation and cultivated meat, seafood, eggs, and dairy.

Attitudes

A survey commissioned by the FSA and published in 2022, revealed that a third of UK consumers would try cultured meat.

Another survey, published in PLOS One, found that the majority of respondents who were willing to eat cultivated meat, would also feed it to their pets. The respondents also said they were mainly concerned about the safety of the lab-grown food for their pets.

Researchers at the Royal Agricultural University reviewed the attitudes of UK farmers towards cultured met. Farmers said they were concerned that the cultivated meat sector would further consolidate the power of large food corporations at their expense.

“Rather than being a ‘gamechanger’, some feared that it could continue to exacerbate the industrialisation of food production and its disconnection from consumers and communities, seen as ‘Americanisation,’” the report said.

Some of the farmers also questioned the authenticity of lab-grown meat.

“That’s a Frankenstein food. What they’re trying to create there is like something I’d be trying to wash out of a shed and throw disinfectant on it to try and kill it. No, definitely not,” one farmer responded.