Austrian cultivated meat company BioCraft Pet Nutrition, a manufacturer of cultivated ingredients for pet food, today makes an announcement claiming it has reached price parity with traditional premium pet meat products.
BioCraft says it has achieved a commercial price of $2.00 to $2.50 per pound of cultivated meat, making it competitive with premium meat for pet food.
To put these prices in context, research by the Good Food Institute found that cultivated meat could be cost-competitive with some conventional meats by 2030 at a production cost of $2.92 per pound.
CEO Shannon Falconer commented, “Achieving price parity and a robust nutritional profile for pets were the only elements holding back cultivated meat for the pet food industry — and BioCraft has now achieved both.”
Rethinking the process
One hurdle cultivated meat companies face is lowering production costs to offer competitive prices with premium meat. According to BioCraft, this has also been the case for cultivated meat for pet food, whose final price has been much higher than conventional meat.
To address the price parity challenge, BioCraft has focused on identifying solutions to make its ingredients affordable without compromising their nutritional value.
After extensive R&D, the company has found a preferable method in that instead of discarding the nutrient-rich growth media after cell cultivation, it reformulates it to be part of the final product. This reutilization eliminates waste and reduces the cost of acquiring and disposing of the media.
Moreover, incorporating the “specially formulated” growth medium into the final product enhances the nutritional profile of the cultivated meat, mimicking the nutrition of traditional meat while adding value to the product without additional cost.
Novel proteins for pet food
According to a recent report by ResearchAndMarkets, the global pet food market, valued at $126.8 billion in 2023, is anticipated to expand to $177.1 billion by 2030. However, consumers’ increasing awareness of sustainability and animal welfare has driven demand in the pet food industry to look for alternatives to traditional meat, such as plant, mycelium, and microbial proteins as well as cultivated meat.
Last year, Biocraft announced the successful development of a cultivated chicken ingredient. Meanwhile, this year, we have seen Czechia’s Bene Meat Technologies and the UK’s Meatly gearing up to launch cultivated meat products for pets.
Meanwhile, using other novel ingredients, Dr. Clauder’s has introduced the world’s first dog treats made with the air protein FeedKindPet, and VEGDOG unveiled treats made with MicroHarvest’s microbial proteins.
BioCraft plans to introduce its cultivated meat product in pet food brands in early 2026. Falconer adds, “We see this as a breakthrough moment for cultivated meat for pet food.”
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