In February 2025, the British pet food brand The Pack partnered with Meatly to launch “Chick Bites,” the world’s first cell-cultured chicken pet treat, priced at £3.49 for a 50-gram pack.This marked the official entry of cell-cultured meat into the pet food market. This breakthrough sparked heated discussions within the industry:in today’s rapidly evolving protein technology landscape, will Meat bone meal, a core ingredient in pet food, be replaced by new technologies?

Pet food market: A blue ocean worth hundreds of billions of yuan giving rise to diverse technologies

According to data from Global Market Insights, the global pet food market reached $138.9 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to $193.65 billion by 2032.China, as the world’s second-largest pet market, saw its pet food market reach 190 billion yuan in 2023,and it is expected to exceed 300 billion yuan by 2028. This multi-billion-yuan market provides a buffer for various protein technologies to explore multiple pathways for trial and error —even if the initial market penetration rate is only 1%-2%, its sheer size can still support the parallel validation of multiple technological routes.

Pet food consumption is shifting from basic nutrition to functional upgrades. The “2025 China Pet Industry White Paper”shows that the average annual expenditure per dog is 2,961 yuan, and for cats, it’s 2,020 yuan. The proportion of high-end staple foods has increased to 28%,and functional products such as those for digestive health and coat enhancement are growing at an annual rate exceeding 40%.This consumption upgrade objectively reduces the market’s sensitivity to high-cost technologies and provides room for trial and error with new protein technologies.

Meat bone meal: The modern value of a traditional ingredient

Amidst the emergence of new pathways such as cell-cultured meat, plant-based protein,and fermented protein, meat bone meal remains a core ingredient in ruminant, aquatic, and high-end pet food, thanks to its naturally complete amino acid profile,rich calcium-to-phosphorus ratio, and high bioavailability. Especially in mature markets like the EU and the US,Meat bone meal processed with stringent rendering techniques has achieved “human-grade” safety standards—high-temperature, high-pressure sterilization, defatting and purification,and dual screening for heavy metals and pathogens—making it a reliable protein source that complies with HACCP and EU Regulation 1069/2009.

According to Vietnamese customs statistics, the country imported 787,000 tons of Meat bone meal in 2022,worth over US$430 million. The global market is projected to steadily climb to US$7.55 billion by 2030.This data confirms the core position of Meat bone meal in the pet food industry chain.

The integration of old and new technologies: not replacement, but complementarity.

The pet food industry is undergoing a profound protein revolution, but this is not a “battle of the old and the new,” but rather a “fusion of the old and the new.”Cell-cultured meat has unique advantages in pet food: sterile production avoids the risks of antibiotic and pathogen contamination;precise control of culture conditions optimizes nutritional structure. However, as Meatly CEO Owen Ensor stated,”There is more innovation experimentation in the pet food sector than in human food.Many individualistic pet owners want to provide their pets with a diverse diet.”

Meat bone meal and new protein technologies are not contradictory but complementary. For example,cultured meat can be a specialty ingredient in high-end pet food, while meat bone meal serves as a basic protein source,meeting the mass market’s demand for high cost-effectiveness and safety.This “high-end + basic” dual-track model is becoming a new trend in the industry.

SunRise: Leading the Intelligent Upgrade of Meat bone meal Manufacturing with Advanced Equipment

In an industry context where traditional Meat bone meal and new protein technologies are developing in parallel, SunRise has consistently driven the modernization and upgrading of Meat bone meal through innovative thinking. We deeply understand that future competition in the pet food market will not only be about protein sources, but also a comprehensive contest of protein quality,safety, and sustainability.

SunRise focuses on the research and development and manufacturing of slaughterhouse waste treatment equipment,animal fat processing equipment, Meat bone meal production equipment, feather meal processing equipment,and livestock and poultry harmless treatment equipment.

We provide enterprise users with comprehensive professional solutions, including production technology consulting,equipment installation and commissioning, production line transformation and upgrading,and production process optimization, effectively solving various challenges faced by our clients and helping enterprises develop.

It is also worth mentioning that SunRise boasts 20,000 square meters of standardized factory buildings and has won numerous authoritative qualifications,including ISO quality management system certification, high-tech enterprise certification, Jiangsu private science and technology enterprise certification,integration of informatization and industrialization management system certification, intellectual property management system certification,special equipment production license certification, and ASME certification.

SunRise: Leading the Intelligent Upgrade of Meat bone meal Manufacturing with Advanced Equipment

In an industry context where traditional Meat bone meal and new protein technologies are developing in parallel,SunRise has consistently driven the modernization and upgrading of Meat bone meal through innovative thinking.We deeply understand that future competition in the pet food market will not only be about protein sources,but also a comprehensive contest of protein quality, safety, and sustainability.

SunRise focuses on the research and development and manufacturing of slaughterhouse waste treatment equipment, animal fat processing equipment,Meat bone meal production equipment, feather meal processing equipment, and livestock and poultry harmless treatment equipment.

We provide enterprise users with comprehensive professional solutions, including production technology consulting,equipment installation and commissioning, production line transformation and upgrading,and production process optimization, effectively solving various challenges faced by our clients and helping enterprises develop.

It is also worth mentioning that SunRise boasts 20,000 square meters of standardized factory buildings and has won numerous authoritative qualifications, including ISO quality management system certification.high-tech enterprise certification, Jiangsu private science and technology enterprise certification, integration of informatization and industrialization management system certification, intellectual property management system certification, special equipment production license certification, and ASME certification.

The Future is Here: A Dance Between Tradition and Innovation

When Meaty knocked on the door of the future with cell-cultured meat, SunRise chose to take root in the real soil-with purer raw materials, more stable quality,and more forward-looking services to help feed companies build a solid nutritional foundation and share the benefits of growth.

Driven by the continued expansion of the pet food market, consumption upgrades, and technological iterations, Meat bone meal and new protein technologies will jointly build a more diversified and sustainable protein supply system. This is not a simple question of “who replaces whom,”but rather an industry-wide issue of “how to jointly create greater value.”

摘自：https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/uk-identifies-atypical-case-of-mad-cow-disease

https://www.openpr.com/news/4395008/future-perspective-key-trends-shaping-the-meat-and-bone-meal
https://www.tridge.com/news/consider-using-meat-meal-meat-bone-meal-in-animal-