There's more to meat than protein

Friends & Family's mission is to improve the underlying protein in pet foods. I talk about it a lot. 

But even after repeating this to anyone who will listen for many years, I still stumble over the word protein. It's a macronutrient that everyone agrees is paramount to cat and dog nutrition. Essential, beyond a doubt. It's a big part of the appeal of meat.

But there is more to meat than protein, and the two are not interchangable. Meats contain a basket of healthy nutrients other than protein; macro- and micronutrients that cats and dogs need. So when I say we are improving the underlying protein in pet food, I really mean meat. And that is a really important distinction.

So while animal protein is the headline nutrient, it has supporting players. It exists in the context of all those other beneficial nutrients. When you look at protein on its own, either as a concentrate or isolate, it's missing that context.

Isolates are concentrated fractions of extracted protein from whole foods and added to raise crude protein levels in pet food. Increasingly you see other isolates on ingredient decks, like fiber isolates, which are made the same way but extracting the fiber content from whole foods.

Pea, soy, potato and rice protein isolates are common in modern formulations. But the ingredients serve one main purpose: to increase a number on the label. They do not replicate animal tissue, or any whole food, and deliver nutrients in isolation. Many people will associate these with meat replacements, but these are not only in vegan brands, isolates are used more in meat-based pet foods.

So again, there's more to meat than protein. Isolate proteins as compared to meat lack the full matrix of connective tissue peptides, natural fats and micronutrients found in intact animal proteins.

Feline diets that rely on protein isolates will need fortification to meet essential amino acid requirements. Cats need aminos like taurine, methionine and cysteine, and getting that into an isolate protein means a lot of engineering. This can and has been done successfully. Animals need nutrients, not ingredients, after all.

Taurine is one of those amino acids that is almost universally engineered. Synthetic taurine is created in laboratories through chemical reactions. It is manufactured from industrial chemicals like ethylene oxide and sodium bisulfite. It's identical, and cats digest and absorb it like organic taurine.

One of our goals, though, is to have taurine naturally expressed in the protein of our meats. So when a cat eats cultivated meat, taurine is naturally present and doesn't need to be added synthetically.

Our theory of meat is that it is more like an orchestra than a solo musician – meaning it works best when the nutrients are together rather than alone. A symphony of meat, to extend the music metaphor.

And it makes sense. Digesting a single ingredient with protein and its accompanying amino acid profile is preferable to protein constructed with numerous isolated amino acid ingredients. 

How would that improve our cats' lives? If the synthetic version of taurine is the same, and is absorbed similarly, why would we go to the trouble of making sure this fragile amino acid is present in our meat's protein? 

I'm actually not sure. I don't think this question has been appropriately studied, or really studied at all. I could be wrong, and all my efforts to cultivate a nutritionally perfect meat may be for nothing. In the end, our cultivated meat may be as nutritious as the processed, supplemented meats in the pet food aisle today.

But if I'm right, and nutrient context matters to cats and dogs, we may see all kinds of benificial outcomes. It may be the key to cat and dog longevity. And that is how we improve the underlying meat in pet food.