Because Animals brings cultured meat to pet-food manufacturers under new BioCraft Pet Nutrition name

Because Animals, one of the first biotech companies to develop cultured meat for the pet-food market, has today announced it has rebranded the company as 'BioCraft Pet Nutrition' as it shifts to working directly with pet-food manufacturers interested in supply-chain stable, high-quality, sustainable, safe, humane cultured meat.  

The name change follows BioCraft’s decision to dedicate its resources solely to the commercialization of cultured meat including R&D, infrastructure, and collaborative relationships. In late 2022, the company discontinued its plant-based products marketed under the Because Animals brand, divesting from those formulations and provisional patents, while retaining all IP relating to cultured meat.  

BioCraft is building partnerships with leading pet-food manufacturers interested in adding cultured meat to their product lines. 'BioCrafted' meat offers pet-food companies a more uniform raw material that is significantly less likely to carry any pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli, and other common fecal-borne bacteria that lead to costly recalls.  

To accelerate product development, BioCraft has appointed Dr Theresa Rothenbücher its Chief Product Officer. She is the Co-founder & former Chief Scientific Officer of Revo Foods, an innovator in high-precision 3D food-printing technology. Her background in stem cell-based tissue engineering and food technology innovation, and experience as an entrepreneur introducing products to the European market, boosts BioCraft’s technical and commercial reach.  

“As we intensified our focus on developing cultured meat for pet food manufacturers, and built up our scientific efforts, it was appropriate to claim a new identity that signals the state of the art in pet nutrition,” said Dr Shannon Falconer, BioCraft Founder & CEO. “Bringing in Theresa’s experience in tissue engineering and product development multiplies our strengths, and puts us on the path to becoming the leading provider of cultured meat for the pet-food supply chain.”

Rothenbücher joins Dr Chai Molina, Chief Computational Officer, who has led BioCraft’s mathematical modeling and AI initiatives since joining the company in 2022. His doctoral work in mathematical modeling of biological systems was recognized with a prestigious award by the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society, and he subsequently worked as a postdoctoral scholar at Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria.  

BioCraft’s team also includes COO, Jonny Cruz, a veteran of the pet-food industry with more than 10 years of experience in sales, marketing, operations, distribution, and supply chain systems. In addition to working for large pet-food brands, he co-founded and served as CEO of All Things Pet, an industry sales and marketing consultancy representing 14 brands including multinationals.

BioCraft’s meat contains no chemical and bacterial contaminants, antibiotics, pentobarbital (a euthanizing drug), steroids, or other hormones, and is not produced using genetic engineering/GMOs. BioCrafted meats are nutritionally robust, with all required protein, key vitamins, fats and amino acids such as taurine – a nutrient typically lost during high-heat processing of meat slurry, then added back in synthetic form for nutritionally complete pet foods.

BioCraft grows meat from proprietary cell lines in a controlled and pathogen-free environment surrounded by a liquid medium of vitamins and minerals formulated without fetal bovine serum (FBS), a process ingredient inhumanely obtained from the slaughter of pregnant cows that has been commonly used to produce other cell-based meats.  

BioCraft’s cultured meat is formulated with a similar consistency as the 'meat slurry' used in conventional pet-food manufacturing, so it can be used as a one-to-one replacement in wet or dry foods, treats, and fresh pet foods.