Pet Food Processing - May 2024 - 38

INGREDIENTS
traditional meat, but without the devastating effects of
animal agriculture. In addition to mouse, BioCraft
has derived a chicken cell line for pet food manufacturers
who prefer to offer their customers
more conventional meat sources. "
Potential for molecular farming
Just like with animal protein, plant protein
production, as well as other plant ingredient
production, may benefit from science.
Advanced technologies such as molecular farming
can be used to produce ingredients for pet food,
diverting whole plant nutrition to humans.
Elo Life Systems, Durham, NC, has a molecular farmBioCraft
Pet Nutrition
also created a
cultivated chicken cell
protein for pet food
manufacturers who
wish to utilize more
traditional protein
sources in their
formulations.
BioCraft Pet Nutrition
pet food company Omni to introduce the world's first
cans of pet food made using cultivated chicken as the
protein source.
" This chicken is real meat, just made differently, at
our facility in London, " said Owen Ensor, co-founder
and chief executive officer of Meatly. " It tastes exactly
like the chicken our pets love to eat and crave, but we
produce it without having to hurt another animal, and
without the environmental damage meat produced via
industrial agriculture causes. "
The process involves three simple steps, according
to Ensor. First, a small sample of cells was taken from a
chicken egg.
" It was just the one single time, " Ensor said. " After this,
we never need to use another animal product in our production,
ever. Second, just like making yogurt or beer, we
nurture these cells in large containers that control temperature
and the pH balance. Finally, we provide all the
vitamins, minerals and amino acids the cells need to grow
big and strong, until they become delicious, healthy meat.
These nutrients are much like those animals consume
when eating grass and other types of foliage. "
Shannon Falconer, founder and chief executive officer,
BioCraft Pet Nutrition, Vienna, Austria, explained
that another advantage to formulating pet food with
such cultivated meat ingredients is that the technology
enables customized nutrient profiles and hypoallergenic
properties.
BioCraft Pet Nutrition focuses on producing cultivated
meat specifically for pet food. Its initiative is grounded
in the need to provide pets, especially obligate carnivores
such as cats, with the essential nutrients found in
meat, but in a way that is environmentally sustainable
and humane.
" Toward this goal, BioCraft began by growing
mouse cells - the ancestral diet of cats - inside of a
bioreactor that contains all of the nutrients cells need to
grow, " Falconer said. " The resulting mouse slurry provides
all of the protein, fat, vitamins and minerals as
38 PET FOOD PROCESSING | May 2024 | www.petfoodprocessing.net
ing platform that produces ingredients that may be difficult
to harvest from natural sources and cannot be
synthesized through artificial or other techniques. The
company produces easy-to-grow crops as bio-factories
for these ingredients.
We're on a mission to
unlock nature's abilities to
make consumers' favorite
foods more delicious, healthy
and planet-friendly. "
Todd Rands, Elo Life Systems
" We're on a mission to unlock nature's abilities to
make consumers' favorite foods more delicious, healthy
and planet-friendly, " said Todd Rands, chief executive
officer at Elo Life Systems. " It's about making foods
more nutrient dense, not calorically dense. We use AI
and proprietary algorithms
to gain deeper insights
across native genomes, genes and traits. Innovation with
healthy and sustainable food is desperately needed, and
our collective future depends on creating new solutions
that do not exist today. "
The company's first product is a monk fruit-derived
sweetener and will launch in 2026. Rands said the company
is also working on the production of varied bioactive
ingredients and novel proteins.
Overcoming hurdles
Development and commercialization are just two of the
hurdles. Putting these proteins into pet foods and treats
requires science, too.
" The challenge around scale for cell-based manufacturing
may lend itself to targeting more of a toppertype
of product and not be the entire protein source
of the final product, " said Sebastian Bohn, sub-market
leader for alternative proteins at Kansas City, Mo.
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