First it was plant-based meat alternatives that have gotten close to reproducing the taste, texture, smell and even ‘bloodiness’ of traditional beef burgers. That was followed by a second wave of food science start-ups attracting venture capital funding to develop ‘lab-grown’ meat products, with slabs of fish and animal flesh grown from cell cultures.

Now Israeli food science start-up Aleph Farms has taken the quest for guilt-free meat eating in another new direction by unveiling what it says is the world’s first non-slaughtered, 3D-printed steak – a rib-eye cut. Grown from cow cells cultivated on a plant-based web that provides the scaffolding for a close-replication of the look and texture of a traditional cut, the 3D-printed steak even has a familiar fat and muscle texture.

Late last year Aleph Farms released a picture of one of its prototype 3D-printed rib-eye steaks being sampled by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The start-ups says its research and development team are now moving on to other cuts.

Source: Aleph Farms

The prime minister, who has ordered Israeli officials to establish a government body responsible for oversight and support of the country’s biotechnology-based food science sector, was certainly impressed, commenting “It’s delicious and guilt-free, I can’t taste the difference.”

At the tasting Mr Netanyahu further promised “Israel will become a powerhouse for alternative meat and alternative protein.”

While most of the alternative meat sector’s early leading lights have so far come out of Silicon Valley, including $11 billion Nasdaq-listed Beyond Meat, Israel has pedigree in food and agricultural science and biotech innovation. And while the country is small, it has a strong tradition of financing and promoting global players across numerous industries, with a focus on intellectual property.

Another boost to the financing hopes of alternative meat and protein start-ups is the new emphasis the Covid-19 pandemic has given to the priority countries are now giving to food security. Currently, says Aleph, as much as 85% of Israel’s beef consumption relies on imports.

Cultivated, non-slaughtered meat start-ups still face regulatory hurdles that stand in the way of mass commercialisation. However, Singapore has become the first territory to create a regulatory body to approve and license cultivated meat products for general consumption. Cultivated chicken produced by U.S. start-up Eat Just has been the first such products to be approved in the southeast Asian city state.

Singapore’s precedent is described by Aleph as having

“transformed the cultivated meat movement from being a long-term vision into becoming a realised practical solution that addresses some of the world’s most pressing challenges of our times.”

To-date, most start-ups in the alternative meat sector have focused on the lower-hanging fruit of products made from minced meat, rather than ‘centre-of-the-plate’ products like steaks. Replicating the latter’s complex structure of lean meat, muscle and fat is a significantly greater challenge.

Key to Aleph Farms’ early success with its 3D-printed rib-eye cuts has been a breakthrough in developing a process to recreate blood vessel structures. Managing to do so was key to it being able to build a ‘thick’ steak, rather than a mince-like consistency.