In a laboratory in west London, Helder Cruz reaches into a fridge and takes out a small plastic tub. The container holds 280 grams of an off-white paste with the consistency of pâté. These are real chicken cells, taken from a fertilized chicken egg and painstakingly grown in the bioreactors opposite.
The paste does not look particularly appetizing, but I am not the target audience. These cells are intended as a slaughter-free ingredient for pet food, and the company growing them, Meatly, has just been approved by UK regulators to produce its chicken cells for pet food. It’s the first approval of a lab-grown pet food ingredient anywhere in the