Wild Earth pet food company recently issued a press release about “a cell-based meat broth topper for dogs that will be available to consumers in 2023.”
The press release provides this statement from Wild Earth CEO: “By replacing factory-farmed products with clean, sustainable, cruelty-free cell-based meat we can tackle the issues of low quality and often contaminated meat used for our pets’ food and transform the sustainability of the entire pet food industry. Cell-based meat is the future of food for us and our pets, and this development marks an important milestone in our mission to disrupt the pet food industry for the better.”
An image of the product from PetFoodProcessing.net:
But…existing pet food regulations might stand in Wild Earth’s way. It all depends on whether regulatory authorities enforce law, or ignore law.
Pet food regulations define a stock/broth product as: “obtained by cooking mammalian or poultry bones, parts, and/or muscle tissue.” If law is enforced, regulatory authorities (State Department of Agriculture Officials and FDA) would/should question the labeling of the Wild Earth’s “Chicken bone broth” as it does not meet the existing legal definition of a pet food broth.
The question is…will regulatory authorities enforce law? Or will they look the other way with this product?
We sent questions to FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine asking if a cell-based pet food meat broth would be approved for sale, they have not responded yet.
Historically, regulatory authorities have looked the other way on many pet food ingredients. As example pea protein ingredients were allowed for years in pet foods prior to a legal definition of the ingredient being written. With no legal definition or GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status on an ingredient, per regulations the product should not be sold.
As well, pet food regulatory authorities in all 50 US states and all federal pet food authorities ignore state and federal laws that prohibit the use of meats/fats sourced from diseased and/or non-slaughtered animals in pet food. Instead of enforcing law, authorities directly allow many pet food companies to source meats/fats from adulterated sources with no warning or disclosure to consumers (they call it “selective enforcement”).
So…should Wild Earth go through the legal process and have their cell-based broth legally defined BEFORE the product ships to consumers? Or should they go down the path of so many other pet food companies, sell it to consumers even if it is not a legal ingredient/product?
Personal opinion: Why do we have AAFCO meetings twice a year if law is just going to be ignored anyway? Are meetings just an expensive ‘show’ or do the laws and legal definitions written there mean something? Actions (of pet food regulatory authorities) speak louder than words.
With regards to cell-based meats, I don’t have any opinion on the product at this point – I don’t have an understanding of how it is manufactured. In concept, it sounds great – I’m hopeful. But…what I don’t know enough about, I don’t give to my pets. As well, I ONLY give my own pets products that fully abide by law (otherwise known as human grade).
Wishing you and your pet the best –
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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Jo-Anne
October 27, 2022 at 2:27 pm
I will never feed my pets anything grown in a lab.
Cindy Roussin
October 29, 2022 at 1:45 am
Neither will I! I’m 61 years old (maybe I’m too old fashioned or just too old?!) and my Maggie (10 year old Boxer) means the world to me! She’s my heart! I will NEVER give her anything like this or insects or anything that I wouldn’t eat. Let them eat bugs and cell grown meats. How much you wanna bet that NONE of the supposed regulators would dare feed this cr@p to their pets? It’s all about money. They don’t care about our 4 legged family members, not one bit! It’s disgusting and angers me to my core! Thank you for reading my LONG message, and thank you, Susan, for protecting our babies!
RHONDA
January 2, 2023 at 11:30 am
Me either !
T.
April 10, 2023 at 7:52 pm
How are you going to know if that is the case?
Jo-Anne
October 27, 2022 at 2:31 pm
You can send your comments about this disgusting lab grown pet “food” to hello@wildearth.com
Here is what I emailed to them:
Hello WildEarth,
I see from your press release:
“cell-based meat broth topper for dogs that will be available to consumers in 2023. The cell-based chicken broth, created in the Wild Earth labs ”
Please be advised I will NEVER feed lab-created “food” to my pets.
I think your product sounds disgusting, uhealthy, and wildly expensive.
You should raise animals and harvest them and put them in the pet food.
GROSS
Jan
October 27, 2022 at 11:32 pm
I completely agree with you!
Anna Maria
October 27, 2022 at 2:32 pm
I hope that the 2023 List will state which pet food companies will be utilizing these “ingredients” in their products. I shall never knowingly give these foods to my dogs and cats. Insects are out as well!
Judy K. Cohen
October 27, 2022 at 3:06 pm
Susan – I have been feeding RAW to my Newfoundland who is now 18 mo, old. I am not one that would not give my girl this bone broth – I want the fresh from the farm – not synthetically made bone broth. I believe that you need the farm fresh to get the nutritional benefit.
I would not even take a genetically modified for myself.
Thank you for all the work you do for our pets.
Judy Cohen
Williamstown NJ.
Dawn McLaughlin
October 27, 2022 at 3:18 pm
As far as I know they still have to start with animal cells to make this garbage. Bovine fetal stem cells were preferred when I last looked into this. Horrible, cruel practice. Nothing clean and humane about it.
Pregnant cows at slaughter have the living fetus removed and it is taken to the clean collection room. A large bore needle is pushed into the living fetus’s heart and the blood is drained until there is no life left. It has to be alive because the cells have to be living and not degraded to go to the lab to be cultured.
Horrible practice and completely hidden from the public.
Cindy Roussin
October 29, 2022 at 1:50 am
Neither will I! I’m 61 years old (maybe I’m too old fashioned or just too old?!) and my Maggie (10 year old Boxer) means the world to me! She’s my heart! I will NEVER give her anything like this or insects or anything that I wouldn’t eat. Let them eat bugs and cell grown meats. How much you wanna bet that NONE of the supposed regulators would dare feed this cr@p to their pets? It’s all about money. They don’t care about our 4 legged family members, not one bit! It’s disgusting and angers me to my core! Thank you for reading my LONG message, and thank you, Susan, for protecting our babies!
Amy
October 27, 2022 at 3:42 pm
“Farm-raised” needs to be defined I would think. When I think “farm” I think building, animals, food, sun, wind, air. Not a petri dish. That’s not what I consider to be a farm.
But maybe this is “natural”?
These definitions (or lack thereof)!
I don’t know. I struggle with test-tube food. Anyone ever watch Soylent Green?
Caninecare.org
October 28, 2022 at 1:07 am
But there is also lots of other crap in farmed: Antibiotics, Sulphites, Carbon Monoxide,Heavy Metals, Pesticides, sometimes meat glue, Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria and let’s not forget about Nitrites/Nitrates as when nitrites combine with certain amino acids, N-nitroso compounds or nitrosamines are formed and these have been shown to be carcinogenic – even from a free range farm. Not to mention all the glyphosates in the farmed animals from the corn and other crap they eat.
Rox
October 27, 2022 at 8:27 pm
Whysupport the corrupt commercial pet food industry with your hard-earned money? It is super easy to make your own beef and bone broth. I buy a few oxtail chunks with meat still on at my local butcher shop and it has never cost more than a couple of dollars. Put in slow cooker on low heat with water to cover for eight hours (start before you head to work, done when you get home).If you want to enhance the calcium in the broth, add 1 tablespoon organic cider vinegar when you start the broth which pulls calcium out of the oxtail bones. Use some, freeze the rest in ice cube trays to top your dog’s food every couple of days. No labs (except Retrievers!!!)! I get that the food industry wants to feed HUMANS lab grown foods claiming it “helps” worldwide food shortages. Yeah that’s what they claimed about GMO crops too and nothing but problems and lawsuits ever since. NO LAB GROWN FOOD FOR DOGS OR CATS OR THEIR HUMANS!!!
Peg
October 28, 2022 at 12:15 am
Better living through chemistry is becoming more barbaric every day.
Caninecare.org
October 28, 2022 at 1:03 am
As a vegan who still buys chicken for my dogs, I’m very excited for this. So called clean pasture Meats, fish, poultry- all have so much crap in it – Antibiotics, Sulphites, Carbon Monoxide,Heavy Metals, Pesticides, sometimes meat glue, Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria and let’s not forget about Nitrites/Nitrates as when nitrites combine with certain amino acids, N-nitroso compounds or nitrosamines are formed and these have been shown to be carcinogenic – even from a free range farm.
Along with the fact that over 5 Million Chickens were killed in the USA this past summer due to bird flu, Lab grown is the way to go.
I hate giving my animals meat not only cause of the cruelty but it’s not a clean product. Most chicken or beef is loaded with Glyphostates (round up) as they eat grass or corn etc.. Especially Chickens eat so much corn which is all treated with round up (unless it’s organic corn).
That gets into the animal that you eat. So for me, a healthier alternative is from a clean animal cell grown in the lab. IMO, better for the planet and better for the animals! Win all around.
Though I’m a vegan and I will never eat any kind of meat or muscle etc..even if lab grown, at I will have a guilt free and healthier meat product to feed my pets. Bring it on!
Casey Post
February 10, 2023 at 10:15 pm
I agree! I love the idea of cultured meats!
The meat industry as it exists now is unsustainable-and the big corps know it! That’s why Cargill et al have invested in this new frontier.
There’s even a cat food coming out made from mouse cells. Although I question the palatability of it being made from mouse ear cells (but I understand why they chose ears).
Lab grown meats are a future I look forward to!