If America’s roughly 180 million meat-loving dogs and cats formed their own nation, they’d reportedly be the fifth biggest meat-consuming country in the world. As pet-keeping has exploded in the developed world, so too has demand for all the chickens, fish, pigs, and cows to feed those pets. There’s even been a trend toward human-grade meat in pet food, meaning pet food isn’t simply the meat that would have gone into lower end uses. 

This is of course a major environmental and animal welfare problem, and it can even be a problem for the pets who are consuming all that meat. 

As a result, startups are being formed to provide an animal-friendlier way to feed our animal friends. One such company is Omni Pet Food. Based in Europe, the company was started only a few years ago but has now already sold millions of meals to European dog lovers, and is on track to bring in about £4 million in annual revenue, or about $5 million USD. 

By using novel, animal-free proteins from plants, yeast, and algae, Omni claims that its pet food has real health benefits for dogs, and is actually preferred by many dogs to the conventional dog food they were previously given. The company has raised a couple million pounds in investor dollars, including even a crowdfunding campaign that generated £400,000 (half a million USD) in 15 minutes.

With so much success in its first nascent years, Omni is aspiring to bring to the world the first-ever cultivated meat cat food by partnering with cultivated meat startup Meatly, which it claims it intends to do within 2024. Already, the company has secured a retail partner for its cat food made with chicken cells grown chicken-free.

In this conversation with Omni CEO Dr. Guy Sandelowsky, we talk about everything from who the audience is for animal-free pet food, why non-vegetarians would choose to feed their pets vegetarian, what the future may hold, and more. 

Discussed in this episode

• Omni went through the ProVeg Incubator.

• Omni’s (future) cultivated meat cat food!

• Our past episodes with UPSIDE Foods (cultivated meat) and Wild Earth (plant-based dog food).

• Guy recommends reading The Lean Startup.

• Paul’s blog on the rising meat demand from pet-keeping.

More about Dr. Guy Sandelowsky

Dr. Guy Sandelowsky, co-founder and CEO of Omni Pet Food, is a veterinary surgeon with over 10 years clinical experience and an MBA from Imperial Business School.