NEWS Alternative Proteins Magazine April 2025 73 BioCraft and Prefera partner to commercialize animal cell-cultured pet food BioCraft Pet Nutrition, which describes itself as the first biotech company to develop animal cell-cultured ingredients for the pet food market, and Prefera Petfood, a specialist in premium natural wet pet food production, announced a partnership to commercialize a hypoallergenic, nutritionally complete cat food made almost entirely from cell-cultured mouse. The partnership’s debut product—a mouse “mousse”—is based on BioCraft’s animal-cell cultured ingredient that not only provides the basic nutrients essential for cats and dogs, but offers additional functional advantages for pet health, including a hypoallergenic protein source and an omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio that is superior to traditional meat, according to the announcement. This forthcoming product for cats leverages BioCraft’s unique cell-culture process to create functional and environmentally sustainable food that is identical to their natural small prey diet. “Achieving a near 100 percent inclusion level of an animal cell-cultured ingredient for a final product is a game-changer for the pet food industry,” said Dr. Shannon Falconer, BioCraft’s founder and CEO. “Most cellular agriculture initiatives struggle to reach high inclusion levels of their ingredient in a final product; however, low inclusion levels don’t accomplish the objective of reducing our reliance on intensive animal agriculture. Prefera understands this, and with BioCraft’s cell-cultured ingredient has overcome this challenge.” Read more>> Biotechnology companies sign definitive merger agreement Cellana, Inc. and PhytoSmart Inc., two companies in algae-based products and biotechnology, signed a definitive agreement to merge the two companies. Upon closing of the merger, PhytoSmart will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Cellana. Deena Sisitsky, CEO of PhytoSmart, will join the Cellana Board of Directors and will lead the Consumer Products activities for the combined company under the PhytoSmart™ brand name. According to the announcement, the combined company will benefit from an expanding portfolio of commercial products initially in the fast-growing Omega-3 supplement and sustainable nutrition sectors. PhytoSmart’s first commercial product is a whole algae pet supplement currently being sold via Amazon and through the PhytoSmart corporate website, in addition to select pet stores throughout the United States. PhytoSmart, based in Maine, USA, has a long-standing history of innovation in heterotrophic algae production based on its patented Sterile Plastic Algal Growth System (SPAGS) production technology. The SPAGS production technology is reportedly centered around the use of small, modular, low-capex, and highly scalable vertical bags and has been optimized for the commercial production of Omega-3-producing algae strains. Read more>>
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUxNjkxNQ==