BioCraft Pet Nutrition advances cultivated pet food commercialization with Prefera collaboration

Biotech company BioCraft Pet Nutrition has partnered with Romania’s Prefera Petfood to commercialize a cat food made from 99% animal cell-cultured mouse. The hypoallergenic mouse “mousse” provides the basic nutrients essential for cats and dogs and a superior omega-6 to omega-3 ratio compared to traditional meat.

The collaboration follows BioCraft’s recent approval from the Austrian government to sell its animal-cell cultured ingredients to EU pet food producers.

The company claims its “nutritionally complete” mousse is based on these ingredients and has received “exceptional” acceptance rates among cats in palatability tests. Cats preferred the cell-cultured mouse mousse over conventional alternatives.

“Cats are notoriously selective eaters, so we’re thrilled with the enthusiastic reception. It’s clear that our feline friends can’t tell the difference — except perhaps that they prefer it,” says Nicola Magalini, general manager of Prefera Petfood.

For BioCraft founder and CEO Dr. Shannon Falconer, achieving a “near 100%” inclusion level of an animal cell-cultured ingredient for a final product is a game-changer for the pet food industry.

“Most cellular agriculture initiatives struggle to reach high inclusion levels of their ingredient in a final product. However, low inclusion levels don’t accomplish the objective of reducing our reliance on intensive animal agriculture. Prefera understands this, and with BioCraft’s cell-cultured ingredient has overcome this challenge.”

BioCraft says cats preferred its products over traditional substitutes in palatability tests.The company expects to commence the production of initial commercial volumes of its ingredient by the end of this year, with mouse mousse to follow.

Advancing sustainable pet nutrition

According to Magalini, Prefera Petfood uses only real, identifiable ingredients without artificial additives or preservatives.

He believes the partnership with BioCraft will help the companies benefit pets and the environment and highlights a “significant milestone in functional, sustainable and ancestrally-appropriate pet nutrition.”

Alternative pet food innovations are gaining ground worldwide, such as US-based PawCo Foods’ postbiotics and fermented protein-based dog food and UK-based Meatly’s hybrid dog food made using cell cultivation and plant-based ingredients.