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Lab-grown ‘marbled’ beef product ready for service

Beef Central, 08/09/2022

THE world’s first cultured meat product with ‘marbling-like’ traits has been launched.

Israel-based food technology company Steakholder Foods has launched Omakase Beef Morsels, made from 100 percent animal cells multiplied in a laboratory.

“This is 100 percent meat, only it’s made without the cow,” the company said.

Omakase Beef Morsels (Picture: Shlomi Arbiv)

Described as ‘structured steak’, the lab grown products consist of multiple layers of separate muscle and fat tissue cultivated from bovine cells, to deliver a ‘marbled’ piece of meat.

Each piece is created using advanced 3D bio-printing technology.

Steakholder Foods’ said one of the key aspects of its 3D printing technology lay in its ability to produce personalised cuts of cultured meat with a variety of marbling patterns and ratios, in any predefined design, shape or structure. The amount of fat content and muscle, as well as nutritional composition can also be adjusted according to individual preferences.

This could offer a glimpse into what the future may hold in terms of fine dining and customised cuisine, the company said, where richly-marbled and bespoke designed premium quality cultured beef cuts are sold as a delicacy for premium dining experiences.

One of the pioneers of the cultured meat industry, Steakholder Foods (formerly known as MeaTech 3D) said Omakase Beef Morsels were inspired by the marbling standard of Wagyu beef.

The new product showcased the technology’s unprecedented control and flexibility, the company said.

“Each layer is printed separately using two different bio-inks – one for muscle and one for fat. The layers can be printed in a variety of muscle/fat sequences which effects the juiciness and marbling of the cut. The product can be printed with any marbling ratio, shape or width,” it said.

Steakholder Foods’ technology could “even exceed the marbling precision reminiscent of the Wagyu beef standard,” and provided unprecedented product consistency at scale it said.

The company’s provisional patent, “stacked, multi-layered meat-emulating consumable,” was the result of a collaboration between the company’s 3D-printing engineers and cellular biologists.

The latest product follows a series of ongoing advancements in Steakholder Foods’ development of printed whole cuts of meat, it said. These included:

  • The largest ever printed cultured steak (3.67 oz)
  • Progress with acceleration and enhancement of living muscle fibre formation to mirror key characteristics of farm-raised meat
  • Development of multiple-nozzle modular printing heads that can produce complex meat products with precision at an industrial rate of production, without impacting cell viability
  • Patent based on the development of systems and methods for applying external forces to muscle tissue that result in the creation of complex structured meat

Steakholder Foods’ chief executive Arik Kaufman said the product was a major breakthrough for the company, and for the cultured meat sector.

“It is the result of a lot of hard work and our desire to attain the highest standard of meat possible through bio-printing and cell cultivation processes. It also marks a significant milestone in our quest to perfect the ‘holy grail’ of meat — steak,” he said.

“We see Omakase Beef Bites at the intersection of food, technology and fine art. We want to inspire chefs around the world to create mouth-watering culinary masterpieces and unforgettable dining experiences.”

Steakholder Foods was launched in 2019 and is listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market. The company maintains facilities in Rehovot, Israel and Antwerp, Belgium and has recently expanded activities to the US.

The company describes itself as developing a slaughter-free solution for producing a variety of beef, chicken, pork, and seafood products — both as raw materials and whole cuts — as an alternative to ‘industrialised farming and fishing’.

With its membership in the UN Global Compact, Steakholder Foods says it is committed to act in support of issues embodied in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which include strengthening food security, decreasing carbon footprint, and conserving water and land resources.

 

Click here for the Steakholder website

 

 

 

 

 

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Comments

  1. George Willows, 10/09/2022

    Good luck to them but they must not be allowed to call it beef, steak or meat.

  2. Graham Finlayson, 08/09/2022

    I’d love to see a full cost benefit analysis of the whole industrialised process, versus producing regenerative real beef from diverse pastures.
    Pretty sure I know what is better for our health, our happiness, the landscape ecology and animal welfare. Let alone regional economies, the stewardship of millions of acres of land and (dare I say it) any sort of positive effect on the mitigation of climate change.
    This bastardisation of food needs to be called out for what it is.

    • Chris Lambert, 09/09/2022

      I can’t see the great chefs of Europe pushing this product on their menus. At best it might make for a cheaper sausage or pie filling but trying to pass this off as goumet to the discerning gastronomer would be a bit of a stretch.

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