Animal-Free Meat Start-Up Uses 3D Printers To Make Steaks

An Israeli start-up company is hoping to drive people towards an animal-free diet by making steaks with 3D printing technology.

Redefine Meat claims it can create steaks that look, taste and feel like the real thing without the involvement of any cows whatsoever; rather, the steaks are made entirely from natural and sustainable ingredients.

The innovative steaks are created using a combination of 'proprietary 3D meat modelling, food formulations and food printing technology to deliver a new category of complex-matrix "meat" in a cost effective and scalable way'.

The full list of ingredients is being kept secret, but it includes soy and pea proteins, coconut fat, and sunflower oil.

The company's aim is to scale up the printers and sell them to meat distributors globally, thus reducing our reliance on cattle farming.

CEO Eshchar Ben-Shitrit told Reuters the technology is 'the best way to fight climate change, to deliver healthier solutions and food to the entire population of the planet'. In other words, the stakes could not be higher.

Ben-Shitrit added: "There is an amazing industry of alternative meat that is focused on minced meat. And actually the meat industry is driven by the whole-muscle cuts.

"Steaks, roast, slow cooking, grilling - everything that an animal can do we want to do the same or even better.

"The idea is to replace a cow. So each of our machines produce in a day exactly like a cow, up to 250 [kilograms] in a single day."

The technology has a long way to go before it can produce 'meat' at the same rate as a slaughterhouse, as they currently only make 13lbs an hour, but the company is hoping to release a new generation of machines next year that are almost three times more productive.

Redefine Meat also hopes to offer the public a first taste of the steaks at high end restaurants in Israel, Germany and Switzerland before the end of the year.

The company is acutely aware that the taste of the steaks will be vital to its success and the whole operation is geared around creating the most realistic replica possible.

According to Business Insider, Redefine Meat food engineer Alexey Tomsov said: "We analysed the different components that make those beautiful cuts and we identified three main components - the muscle, the blood, and the fat.

"These are the components that we need to mimic in order to reach the perfect beautiful steak."

You can learn more about Redefine Meat here.

Topics: Food, World News, meat, Animals, Steak

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey