Oxford-based Ivy Farm Technologies has been cleared to sell its cultivated Wagyu beef as a pet food ingredient in the UK, making it just the second start-up with such an approval there, Green Queen reports.
The clearance came from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and the Animal and Plant Health Agency. It follows the 2024 approval of Meatly's cultivated chicken, which appeared in a limited run of dog treats from The Pack last year. Ivy Farm showed its ingredient at the PATS 2026 trade show in Birmingham a few weeks ago.
The company, founded by Cathy Ye and Russ Tucker and spun out of the University of Oxford in 2019, grows F1 Wagyu from the cells of a single Japanese Black cow raised in Northern Ireland. The cells are fed amino acids, sugars and vitamins in bioreactors under controlled temperature and timing.
The company describes a product with 20g of protein per 100 kcal, against 17.2g for beef sirloin. It reports independent tests showing 98% digestibility and 7.6% absorption, compared with 91% and 4.5% for conventional beef. It also claims 95% less land, 78% less water and 92% lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional beef. The ingredient can go into dog treats, wet and dry food, fresh meals, toppers and specialised formulas.
Ivy Farm is working with several manufacturers, among them Fold Hill Foods, which is developing products for its brand and retail partners. "Fold Hill can offer its partners access to distinctive new product concepts," managing director Ben Mankertz said.
Food for people follows a different and slower route through the Food Standards Agency. The company is awaiting approval in the UK, the US and Singapore. CEO Harsh Amin told Green Queen earlier this year that long timelines and tougher funding are its main challenges. "Every year of delay increases the risk that well-intentioned, science-backed startups run out of capital," he said.
Abroad, BeneMeat, Biocraft Pet Nutrition and Umami Bioworks have registered cultivated proteins as feed materials in the EU, and Singapore's Friends & Family Pet Food has sold cultivated quail treats since April.
Reporting by Anay Mridul for Green Queen.
Photo: Fernando Hartwig / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Green Queen
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