Israel is Redefining…Meat?! New Technology is "Printing" Meat for Restaurants in Israel and Europe

Now, I know most of my readers are meat lovers, but as a “part-time vegan” :-) this does interest me.

Redefine Meat, an Israeli startup company, announced that high-end restaurants will be serving their 3D-printed plant-based "meat" products to diners in select areas of Europe. I don't know about you, but it's hard to figure out how you "print plant-based meat," but that's just what this innovative Israeli company has figured out how to do. And they say they specialize in "the world's first" whole cuts that resemble cuts of beef and lamb.

Most plant-based meat alternatives perhaps have the flavor of meat, but they don't have the texture. Redefine Meat claims to have "cracked the holy grail of the alternative meat industry." "New Meat," Redefine Meat's product line, includes whole cuts, burgers, sausages, lamb kebabs, and ground beef. Their goal is to become "the world's largest meat company by offering every single cut that a cow does."

Entrepreneurs Eschchar Ben-Shitrit and Adam Lahav produced their first "printed" steak in 2018. They have patented industrial-scale manufacturing technology that fully replicates beef, including the muscle structure of meat. The "ink" is a mix of pea protein, soy, beetroot, chickpeas, and coconut fat. The company found a way to utilize the fat in the plants to mimic beef fat and natural flavors and colors to duplicate the blood factor and juiciness in meat. The products are high in protein and have no cholesterol.

Redefine Meat aims to sell the specialized 3-D printers and ink cartridges to meat distributors worldwide, who will, in turn, produce and distribute the "meat" to eateries and other customers.

Dishes featuring "New Meat" will soon be on tables at Marco Pierre White's Steak Houses in the UK (22 restaurants established by celebrity chef Marco Pierre White), Brigadiers (an Indian restaurant in the UK, and Michelin-starred restaurants Ron Gastrobar in the Netherlands (started by Dutch chef and TV star Ron Blaauw). Redefine Meat is already on tables in Israel at more than 150 restaurants, including Coffee Bar and Hotel Montefiore in Tel Aviv. In addition, the company is working on launching in the US and Asia.

Ninety percent of meat-eaters that participated in a blind taste test liked "New Meat" products. "For me, this is a gamechanger, as we can now serve another variety of high-quality meat to our customers that just happens to be made from plant-based ingredients," Dutch Chef Blaauw said. "Even now, my head is still spinning with the possibilities this meat creates for our menu."

The global substitute meat market is expected to reach $8.1 billion over the next five years, as consumers look for ways to reduce their meat intake for health, animal welfare, or environmental reasons, according to Allied Market Research.

And Israel appears to be pioneering and innovating in this arena as well. In addition to Redefine Meat "printing" plant-based "meat," another company in Israel, Aleph Farms, has found a way to "grow" meat in a laboratory using meat cells…producing meat without killing animals.