BioCraft Makes the Case for Voluntary Safety Disclosure in Cultivated Pet Food

Cultivated pet food company BioCraft Pet Nutrition has released safety data for its mouse-cell ingredient, making it the first publicly available safety record for an animal cell-cultured pet food ingredient. The filing, posted on bioRxiv, aims to address a gap in safety disclosure in the market as current regulations do not require ingredient-level data to be disclosed. Testing of the mouse cell line PE25 found no cancer-like traits, no living cells in the finished ingredient, and non-genotoxic results under standard assays.

All seven authors of the safety data are BioCraft employees, with CEO Shannon Falconer listed as a potential competing financial interest. The company, founded in 2016, operates its research operations through its Vienna-based subsidiary and is known for its flagship ingredient made from mouse cells. Falconer emphasized the importance of establishing trust in the emerging category of cultivated pet food and believes that setting a precedent for transparency will impact industry perception in the long term.