British cultured meat company Meatly has revealed the findings from its feeding trials for Meatly Chicken, pet food made with cultivated chicken.

The voluntary trials, conducted by Treat Therapeutics, featured 31 privately owned pet dogs made up of 14 different breeds from across the UK. They involved at-home feeding observations, including surveys with the dog owners to assess response to the product and veterinary checks. The product tested was a complete diet containing only cultivated chicken and plant-based ingredients.

According to Meatly, the results showed that dogs found the pet food made with cultivated chicken ‘highly palatable and consumed it safely’.

The trials

Meatly conducted two separate trials – a single-day trial where select dogs were provided Meatly pet food for both meals of the day, and a more comprehensive two-week controlled trial, with a placebo group fed just a plant-based diet, that saw selected dogs given Meatly pet food for seven days straight, after an adaptation phase.

Overall, dogs were found to enjoy Meatly pet food as much, or in some cases more, than their normal diet, which the start-up says is indicative of the ‘high taste properties of cultivated meat’. 75% of the dogs were reported to experience higher enjoyment when eating Meatly’s cultivated chicken pet food, compared to their baseline diet.

There were no significant adverse effects of feeding cultivated meat diets over the 134 recorded meals. The results confirm the product's quality after the extensive safety and nutritional analysis data that the company collected over the past two years.

Nutritionally, Meatly Chicken’s protein profile is comparable to traditionally reared chicken breast, containing all the essential amino acids in similar amounts, as well as the important fatty acids, minerals and vitamins for pet nutrition.

In addition to finalising the latest results from these tests, Meatly has concluded its latest undisclosed funding round. This included follow-on investment from Pets at Home, as well as new incoming investors, including DSM-Firmenich Venturing, JamJar and Joyful Ventures. This latest development will help support Meatly’s plans to launch with its first brand partner in Q1 of 2025.

Owen Ensor, founding CEO of Meatly, said: “Dogs will tell you if they don’t like the food you’ve served them – so we’re ecstatic that the pets in this trial enjoy Meatly Chicken even more than we thought they would! These results demonstrate that we can feed our pets truly sustainable and kinder meat without compromising on taste or nutritional values. We look forward to working towards our next milestone in the next few months – launching our first ever cultivated meat product to market.”

Jim Mellon, executive chairman and co-founder of Agronomics and investor in Meatly, commented: “Demand for meat around the world, from both humans and our pets, is far outgrowing supply, at huge cost to the planet. The work and progress that Owen, Helder and the team at Meatly have made this year has been truly impressive, achieving incredible cost reduction, regulatory approval and now another financing to support the launch of its first product.”

Emmanuel Bijaoui, founder of Treat Therapeutics, added: “By collaborating with us on these exclusively home-based trials, Meatly has taken a significant step in validating cell-based meat's relevance for real-world dogs. The positive trial outcomes from a diverse pool of participants consolidates the potential of cultivated meat as a novel ingredient.”

In July, Meatly became the UK’s ‘first and only’ regulatory-approved cultivated meat company. In May, Meatly unveiled its media formulation that is more affordable than the standard industry media and can be used in industrial processes.

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