BioCraft Pet Nutrition, a biotech company developing animal cell-cultured ingredients for the pet food market, has received approval from the Austrian government to begin selling ingredients to EU pet food producers. 

Austrian authorities granted BioCraft the registration “for the purpose of multiplying cells for the production of pet food.” There is currently no pre-market approval process in the EU for alternative or novel animal feed ingredients. 

BioCraft’s cultured cell-based ingredient is made with mouse cells — the ancestral small prey diet of both cats and dogs. It does not require additional downstream processing and can be used as a one-to-one replacement in wet or dry foods.

Studies were conducted to fulfill the requirements, performed over a three-year period, and confirmed that BioCraft’s ingredients are produced using stable, non-immortalized, non-genetically modified animal cells. They are also free of bacterial pathogens, viruses including retroviruses, mycotoxins, moulds, and yeasts, biogenic amines, and heavy metals.

Additional third-party profiling of over 100 nutrients revealed a highly similar nutritional profile between BioCraft’s animal-cell cultured ingredient and standard “meat slurry” currently used by pet food manufacturers. Results showed comparable levels of key nutrients, such as taurine, lysine, methionine and tryptophan, and a superior omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of BioCrafts ingredient to that of conventional “chicken slurry.”

BioCraft founder and CEO Dr. Shannon Falconer, says, “Achieving ABP registration for an animal cell-based ingredient in the EU is a significant milestone for BioCraft and the industry as a whole.” 

“This comprehensive safety analysis goes well beyond regulatory compliance and provides a meticulous breakdown of our feed safety protocols, including stringent supplier verification processes, traceability documentation, risk assessments, and SOPs for every critical control point. We’ve implemented rigorous quality control measures and transparency across our supply chain, and the result is the highest industry standards for safety and integrity in alternative protein production.”

Pet food alternatives on rise 

 Patricia Heydtmann, quality and product development director at Partner in Pet Food, one of Europe’s leading pet food manufacturers, which is investigating options together with BioCraft, says, “Pet food producers are following this market space eagerly because there is a need for more ingredients that are supply-chain stable, sustainable, scalable, safe, and ethical.” 

“BioCraft’s HACCP plan detailing safety and nutritional quality are an additional assurance that its ingredients are ready to be developed into healthy products that our cats and dogs will enjoy.”

Companies wishing to sell animal-based ingredients to pet food manufacturers in the EU must meet legal requirements to ensure that the feed ingredients are safe to become registered users of animal byproducts. BioCraft has now met its obligation as a Feed Business Operator and notified the EU Feed Material Register.