A carbon footprint analysis conducted in collaboration with ClimatePartner has concluded that cultivated ingredients produced by BioCraft Pet Nutrition emit just a fraction of the emissions of conventional beef byproducts used in pet food.
According to the analysis, a hypothetical beef byproduct emits 21.28 kg CO₂ per kilogram, whereas BioCrafted Meat produces just 1.73 kg CO₂ per kilogram — only one-twelfth as much. The calculations were based on internationally recognized methodologies and used emission factors from trusted databases.
Notably, the analysis compared BioCraft’s ingredients to beef byproducts not typically consumed by humans — such as offal, bones, blood, and fat — rather than prime beef cuts. This is important because these byproducts are often regarded as sustainable, but the figures show that this is not necessarily the case.
“BioCraft’s approach demonstrates a high level of resource efficiency by maximizing product yield per volume of initial nutrient inputs, which directly contributes to the significantly lower carbon footprint of the ingredient,” said Jakob Sterlich, CEO of ClimatePartner Austria GmbH. “Such innovations are important steps in reducing the environmental impact of pet food ingredients, such as feed, water use, methane emissions, and land use.”
“Unique production process”
Using culture-grown animal cells, BioCraft produces an unstructured ingredient that does not require additional downstream processing. Its first product is made from mouse cells, and can be used as a one-to-one replacement in wet or dry pet foods at similar inclusion levels to traditional meat slurry.
Since BioCraft produces raw ingredients, the carbon footprint analysis measures “cradle-to-customer plus end-of-life”; this includes extraction and pre-processing of raw materials; packaging, production, and delivery of the product to pet food manufacturing companies; and disposal of the product and its packaging at the end of its life. However, it does not account for emissions during the production of the final consumer product or consumer use.
The news comes after BioCraft received registration to sell cultivated pet food ingredients in the EU earlier this year, before announcing a partnership with Prefera Petfood to commercialize cultivated cat food.
“The difference in CO₂ emissions between BioCrafted Meat and conventional beef used for pet food is due to our unique production process, which harvests the full contents of the bioreactor, which also makes it quite different from cultivated meat production,” said BioCraft founder and CEO Dr. Shannon Falconer. “The environmental impacts of raising cattle are caused by the entire animal, not merely the portions used in the human food supply.”
