The UK has become the first European country to approve putting lab-grown meat in pet food.

Regulators cleared the use of chicken cultivated from animal cells, which lab meat company Meatly is planning to sell to manufacturers.

The company says the first samples of its product will go on sale as early as this year, but it would only scale its production to reach industrial volumes in the next three years.

No applications for cell-cultivated products for human consumption have been authorised in Great Britain.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) welcomed the move and said it closely monitors any new product coming onto the market.