Plant-based steak from a 3D printer near you

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[CEO and cofounder of Redefine Meat, Eshchar Ben Shitrit, says:] “We are working on really good, really tasty meat that doesn’t come from animals. Instead of using cows we are using technology, in our case 3D printing.”

This isn’t meat, it’s a plant-based steak, 3D printed to mimic the structure of animal muscle.

The ‘alt meat’ market is exploding.

Global sales could reach $140 billion by 2029, about 10% of the world meat market, according to Barclays.

Israeli start-up Redefine Meat is throwing its hat in the ring with plans to launch its industrial-scale 3D printers to meat distributors next year.

[Redefine Meat food engineer, Alexy Tomsov, says:] “We analyze the different components that make those beautiful cuts and try to figure out which are the key components that we need to mimic in order to achieve those beautiful cuts of meat. We identified three main components, the muscle, the blood, and the fat. these are the components that we need to mimic on order to reach the perfect, beautiful steak.”

Redefine Meat’s machine can currently print up to 13 pounds of meat an hour.

That will go up to 44 pounds next year and eventually hundreds, at a cheaper cost than real meat.

And it’s not just Redefine Meat that’s in a bid to win a slice of the fast-growing alternative meat market.

Israel is one of the pioneers in this market, boasting numerous alternative and cultured meat start-ups.

Aleph Farms is working on lab-grown steak.

Meat-Tech 3D is combining 3D printing with the lab meat process.

Redefine Meat raised $6 million last year in a round led by CPT Capital, an investor in Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods.

It’s also partnering with Swiss flavour maker Givaudan.

“At the end of the day, technology is important but what’s more interesting is to have a really delicious and tasty food product that you can cut through and have a bite, and be excited.”