Meat substitutes are becoming increasingly popular with consumers’ concern towards animal welfare and the environment. Now, Israeli startup Redefine Meat unveils the world’s first Alt-Steak plant-based products that mimic real beef, with market testing at selected high-end restaurants to start later this year.
The company says that currently, more than 50 billion kg of beef is consumed annually worldwide, and, unfortunately, demand continues to increase. “Just one kilogram of beef requires 25 kg of feed, 20,000 liters of water, and produces 22 kg of greenhouse gases.” But the company intends to contribute its grain of sand to change this situation.
Redefine Meat explains that with its technology and the use of natural and sustainable ingredients, it can produce a vegetable alternative that perfectly mimics the appearance, texture, and flavor of animal meat. They can be produced in terms of quantities and costs for a large-scale launch.
The Alt-Steak products are produced layers by layer using the company‘s patent-pending 3D meat printing technology and Alt-Muscle, Alt-Fat, and Alt-Blood plant-based formulations. By printing with multiple ingredients, Redefine Meat can create sustainable, protein-rich, and cholesterol-free steaks that look and taste like beef.
Like the rest of the companies such as Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods that offer vegetable alternatives to meat, Redefine Meat presents its 3D-printed meat as more sustainable and respectful with the environment. Its environmental impact is 95% less than that of animal meat; it is healthier and also affordable.
In the 3D-printed steak development, chefs, butchers, food technologists, and other experts have worked together to map all the parameters – like texture, juiciness, fat distribution, mouthfeel, etc. – of traditional meat and transfer them to vegetable meat.
As we have already mentioned, Redefine Meat will first test its alternative steak in high-end restaurants this year before. Taking into account the feedback from renowned chefs and butchers, the company will ramp up the production of its 3D meat printers and Alt-Steak formulations ahead of market distribution in 2021.
