BERKELEY, CALIF. — Friends & Family Pet Food Company (FnF), a new pet nutrition company leveraging animal-free ingredients, announced today a new collaboration with Novel Farms, a biotech startup that develops cultivated animal meat ingredients. The strategic partnership aims to produce a “new class” of cultivated meat pet food products.  

Headquartered in Berkeley, Novel Farms uses microbial fermentation to create cruelty-free, inexpensive bioscaffolds to produce cellular-based meat products. Through this, the company cultivates a variety of animal meats, including quail, chicken, pork and mouse, that offer high nutritional profiles to support cats and dogs. 

“Cultivated pet food makes perfect sense as an entry point for getting cultivated products to market,” said Michelle Lu, founder and chief executive officer of Novel Farms. “As Novel Farms prepares for our own market entry in the next year, pet food is a high-impact strategic target for us.”

Based in Oakland, Calif., FnF partners with top-tier startups and scientists that specialize in the production of animal-free ingredients, bringing them to the pet nutrition market using its pet food platform. The company collaborates with its partners to customize the animal-free ingredients, like reducing the saturated fat content and providing more beneficial amino acids. According to FnF, this customization of nutritional attributes, as well as the environmental benefits, consistent supply and high food safety standards, makes cultivated meat and fish superior compared to farmed sources.

This newest collaboration with Novel Farms complements the company’s previously announced partnership with UMAMI Bioworks to create cultivated fish based cat treats. 

“Just like all food, pet food is a meat-focused industry that could use some innovation,” said Joshua Errett, CEO of FnF. “Cultivated meat and fish represent a once-in-a-generation opportunity to remake pet food to what our dogs and cats want and need to eat, not simply whatever is left over from the human supply chain. Our collaboration-heavy, asset-light approach has the potential to change pet food forever.”

Novel Farms’ cultivated ingredients will be incorporated into FnF’s formulas for cats and dogs. The two companies have notified the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) and will begin prototyping products in 2025. FnF will launch the product to pet food consumers in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Read more about the latest advancements in cultivated meat in pet nutrition.