Bene Meat Technologies announces a new technological development that uses animal cell lines for the scalable production of cultivated meat ingredients for the pet food industry.
“The first economically meaningful and mass-produced product will most likely be pet food!” says the startup.
Raw materials for pet food
Founded in 2020 and led by a team of Czech biotechnologists and food scientists, the Prague-based food tech focuses on developing and commercialising technology for cultivated meat production on an industrial scale for the food and feed industries.
On its cultivated meat R&D path, the food tech says it has developed various technologies and products which were not its primary focus but could have new applications, such as raw materials to be used as pet food ingredients.
Managing Director Roman Kříž explains: “A tasty, high-quality, visually attractive steak is the holy grail in developing cultured meat. However, on the research journey behind this sophisticated final product, our company generates a significant amount of knowledge and products with the possibility of new uses. These products were not our original focus, but now they are becoming an equal priority. That is why we are intensively dedicated to the technology of producing raw materials for pet food.”
The market for cultivated meat as pet food
Bene Meat Technologies says that pet food production is energy and ecologically demanding. The industry is responsible for 25% of the carbon footprint of animal husbandry. The food tech adds that, according to various surveys researching the market for cultivated meat as pet food, a significant number of people are willing to feed their pets with feed made using cultivated meat.
Cultivated meat ingredients, a solution for the pet food industry
“According to our findings, this industry faces several challenges, ranging from increasing market regulation in terms of quality requirements, through fluctuating input prices, to complicated supply flows, and the contamination of products within the production process,” Kříž explains.
“We want to offer pet food producers a technology that allows them to produce the key components of the final feed in a bioreactor, economically, efficiently, humanely, with constant quality, and without the need to rely on suppliers,” he adds.
Bene Meat Technologies claims to have developed the necessary technology for producing cultivated meat and announces that it will apply for its approval in the US and the EU in early 2023.
