Pets Are Being Sold Lab-Grown Meat – But Is It Safe?

Last year, the UK government made headlines by granting £1.6m to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to investigate something straight out of science fiction: lab-grown meat . The notion of beef that never chewed its cud or chicken that clucked feels like the fever dream of a Black Mirror writer.

Yet here we are, Pets at Home has now launched what it claims are the world’s first treats t hat combine plant-based ingredients with lab-grown chicken, eliminating the need for raising and slaughtering animals.

And experts say, it is only a matter of time that humans are sold meat produced in vats, not fields. But, before you start imagining petri-dish poultry and test-tube T-bones in Tesco, let’s tackle the big questions: is it safe? Is it healthy? And will it save the planet or is it just another ultra-processed foodstuff?