Hi readers,
This week, we’re exploring a topic that has been discussed a lot for dogs, but not so much for cats: vegan food.
In general, a vegan diet has a substantially lower environmental footprint than a carnivore or omnivore one. With growing interest in sustainability, it’s not surprising that alternative proteins have moved pretty quickly in dog food.
Cats, though, are trickier.
This week’s Feline Business Brief examines why vegan and cultivated feline diets are advancing slowly, and what recent launches tell us about where innovation in this space is likely to stick.
Ethel’s last attempt at a plant-based diet (many years ago).
What we’re watching
Vegan cat food tiptoes cautiously into the spotlight
Two recent launches have pushed alternative cat food back into the conversation:
UK-based Omni has announced the launch of Feast: Chicken Revolution, positioning it as the world’s first cultivated-meat cat food. Rather than plant-based substitution, Omni is using lab-grown chicken cells to produce real animal tissue. Omni is positioning the product around animal welfare, sustainability, and ingredient transparency, while adding that it remains appropriate for cats as obligate carnivores.
Meanwhile, European brand VEGDOG has expanded beyond dogs with VEGCAT Pure Bites, a vegan feline snack built around microbial fermented protein. The product is supplemental rather than a complete diet, with added taurine and a hypoallergenic positioning for sensitive cats.
These launches highlight two very different approaches to the same conundrum: how to innovate in feline nutrition without neglecting cats’ nutritional needs.
Why cats remain the hardest test case
Plant-based and alternative pet food generally have advanced far more quickly in dogs than cats, for many reasons:
Cats have narrow nutritional tolerances;
They require specific amino acids such as taurine; and
They’re also much less forgiving of formulation or texture errors.
This has historically constrained experimentation in cat food.
Omni’s and VEGDOG’s approaches are forging different paths around these issues:
Omni’s cultivated-meat strategy mostly sidesteps the philosophical debate altogether around vegan cats. Omni’s product is made of actual chicken tissue, which has been created through cell cultivation.
By taking this approach, the company avoids having to ask consumers (and regulators) to accept plant-based substitutes as nutritionally equivalent to ‘real’ meat.
VEGDOG’s approach is pretty much the opposite. Rather than replicating meat, it is replacing animal protein with fermented microbial protein that can be engineered for digestibility and nutritional value.
Also, by positioning VEGCAT as a supplemental treat rather than a complete food, the company avoids making high-risk claims while trying to garner consumer acceptance.
What this means commercially
These products are unlikely to disrupt the mainstream cat food market in the near term. But they are certainly significant, for three reasons:
First, they indicate growing confidence in feline nutritional innovation and a willingness to experiment;
Second, they reflect consumer segmentation that didn’t exist a decade ago, i.e. cat guardians who seek out products that are aligned with sustainability, animal welfare, or ethical ingredients;
Third, they highlight advances in alternative protein production processes (such as fermentation, cell culture, precision nutrition) and a spillover into feline nutrition from dog and human food.
The critical question is therefore not whether vegan or cultivated cat food will go mainstream, but more: will these launches promote the idea that it's ‘safe' to experiment with plant-based cat food?
Why innovating in cat food is riskier
Cats are obligate carnivores, which means they evolved to depend on nutrients found solely in animal flesh. Unlike omnivores, cats have limited capacity to digest carbohydrates or plant proteins and cannot synthesise certain essential nutrients (including taurine) at levels needed for health.
Taurine is critical for vision and cardiac function; without adequate dietary sources, cats can develop dilated cardiomyopathy and retinal degeneration. This requirement is so fundamental that regulators (e.g., AAFCO) mandate higher taurine levels in feline diets than in dog food.
Cats also lack the enzymatic pathways to convert plant precursors into other essential nutrients such as arginine, arachidonic acid and preformed vitamin A. This means animal-sourced ingredients (or precise synthetic supplementation) are crucial.
What does this mean for cat food brands?
Innovators of cat food face higher commercial barriers than in dog food:
Increased commercial and regulatory risk: Meeting obligatory nutrient thresholds requires not only formulation precision but solid evidence of digestibility and long-term safety, as deficiencies can cause severe disease over months or years.
Clinical evidence is key, much more so than for dog food: Novel diets must demonstrate that supplementation and processing achieve bioavailability and balance equivalent to meat-based food, and come under greater scrutiny (and sometimes scepticism) from vets, regulators and cat guardians.
Higher formulation costs: Given the need for more extensive clinical evidence and precise formulation costs, it’s not surprising that innovating cat food also comes with higher costs.
Our quarterly Feline Business Monitor is a market intelligence report analysing these and other commercial signals shaping the global feline economy. Find out more here.
Feline Business Brief provides market intelligence on the global feline economy. We analyse early signals, emerging risks and structural shifts across feline nutrition, health, therapeutics, diagnostics, technology and retail.