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Redefined Meat, an Israeli startup specializing in
alternative meat, recently unveiled what it calls the world’s first
3D-printed plant-based steak called Alt-Steak.
Using its own patent-pending 3D-printing technology, Redefine Meat has
allegedly been able to create a meatless steak that features the
appearance, texture, and, most importantly, the taste of the real thing.
The company was apparently to achieve all this by working with expert
butchers, chefs, food technologists and Swiss flavor company Givaudan.
The revolutionary Alt-Steak is created by mixing Redefined Meat’s
Alt-Muscle, Alt-Fat, and Alt-Blood plant-based formulations in several
layers. The end result is a sustainable, high-protein, cholesterol-free
steak that looks, cooks and tastes like real meat.
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“The importance of using precision 3D printing technology to achieve
texture, color and flavor—and the combinations between them—cannot be
overstated. By using separate formulations for muscle, fat and blood, we
can focus on each individual aspect of creating the perfect Alt-Steak
product,” Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, CEO and Co-Founder of Redefined Meat,
said.
“Since day one of the company, we have been working on creating a tasty
and affordable plant-based alternative to steaks, one of the most
cherished food products and the driver of the entire meat industry,” the
Redefined Meat CEO added. “To enable mass adoption, we knew that
creating an alternative meat product that was both high in quality and
nutritional composition would require new technologies and production
processes never seen before in the food industry.”
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Alt-Steak is described as an “extremely complicated food” where protein,
fats, natural colors and flavors and more are arranged in a precise
manner to make them perform like the equivalent elements in a cow’s
muscle. However, this alternative meat product comes with the advantage
that it can be produced much faster than the real thing.
To promote its alternative steak, Redefined Meat recently invited
Israeli chef Assaf Granit at its offices for a tasting. Granit said that
the taste of Alt-Steak was “almost identical” to the original, adding
that, in his opinion, eight out of ten people wouldn’t tell the
difference between a real steak and an Alt-Steak.
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Redefined Meat produces both the 3D printers and the edible “inks”
required to “print” alternative meat products, which it aims to sell to
meat distributors around the world. The inks are made out of plant-based
ingredients, proteins from legumes and grains, plant fats, and natural
flavors and colors to mimic the juice and blood of an actual steak.
“It is very unique to us; we are the only ones doing this. We come very
close to how the composition of meat is in nature, and our 3D printer
essentially is like a very complicated robot that knows how to take each
one of these ingredients and in a very accurate manner… builds a food
product,” Eshchar Ben-Shitrit said.
Alternative meat is considered the future, so it’s no surprise that
companies are racing to come up with the next breakthrough. In the past,
we featured the now famous Impossible Burger, as well as Nova Meat’s
version of a 3D-printed steak. |