Passing the Taste-Test: Redefine Meat’s 3D-Printed Vegan ‘Alt-Steak’ Convinces Omnivores in Blind Trial Run in Israel
The Israeli start-up Redefine Meat presented their ‘Alt-Steak’ in 2020, providing a plant-based meat substitute that looks, cooks and tastes just like the real animal product, created with the power of print. The 3D-printed, revolutionary meat-alternative passed the taste test in February and is coming to supermarkets all over the world in 2022.
Remember the revolutionary, 3D-printed meat-alternative we reported on last October? Well, Redefine Meat’s “Food Printing Revolution” has so far been very successful and their vegan ‘Alt-Steak’ is already selling tremendously well in the Redefine Meat food truck. Wide-scale distribution of their Alt-Meats is planned for Israel this year with the upscale Israeli meat distributor Best Meister, a global roll-out is currently scheduled for 2022. By then, the products are supposed to be available globally in supermarkets. Their food truck catered to a primarily omnivore audience in a blind taste-test in January and delivered overwhelmingly positive results.
The Food Truck Triumph
Redefine Meat utilized print technology to create the first-ever 3D-printed vegan steak in 2020, a project that was such an out-of-the-box, inventive way to use print technology that we just had to report on it! After initially passing the pilot test for its look and feel, they now advanced the project with a taste-test for the 3D-printed meat-alternative with a “carnivore-branded” food truck in the Tel-Aviv suburb Kidron, Israel, providing tastings with minimal or no condiment, pulling off the “world’s largest carnivore-targeted blind tasting”. The Alt-Meat is very sustainable, having a significantly smaller environmental impact (95 % less) than conventional meat products. And, of course, – like all vegan products – it’s cruelty-free. In addition to that, it is also a very healthy food product, being made out of a proprietary blend of soy, pea protein, coconut fat, sunflower oil, and natural colors and flavors that imitates “the real deal” without any of the cholesterol of real animal meat. On top of that, it manages to be more affordable, even with all the high-end, future technology they employed to create and produce the product. So vegans are destined to love it, regardless of the reason they went vegan to begin with: for the animals, for the planet or for their own health. But to get the omnivores, they had to make it taste just like “the real thing” as well to have their “new era in alternative meat” be successful. So they let their meat speak for itself. And it did: 90 % of visitors said the meat products were comparable to animal products in taste, texture, mouthfeel, and more, fulfilling all requirements for a satisfying experience.
“We believe Alt-Meat should taste as good as animal meat — simple as that. Redefine Meat has achieved that with every product it has put to the test, transitioning the Alt-Meat conversation from health and sustainability and the view that ‘this is really close’ to ‘wow this meat is super delicious’. The incredible results of the food truck exemplify this. We initially only expected 100 visitors a day, as the event was held in a small village due to COVID-19 restrictions. But through word of mouth, we ended up receiving over 600 customers in one day — with queues as long as 50 minutes. What this has shown is that meat lovers can enjoy our alternative meat because it tastes and feels like meat — not solely because it is better for the environment or animals,”
said Redefine Meat CEO Eshchar Ben-Shitrit. He co-founded the brand in 2018 to create technology that “produces animal-free meat with the same appearance, texture and flavor of animal meat, from natural and sustainable ingredients”. To achieve this, they employ the power of print as their technology takes advantage of proprietary 3D meat modeling, food formulations and food printing technology.
A Unique Alternative Meat Offering
The product sold out in less than five hours with about 600 visitors buying nearly 1,000 Alt-Meats dishes as stated in the Redefine Meat press release and on their Instagram Account. The company donated all revenue from the food truck to support local restaurants in Israel who were struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
See how “the sausage is made” and enjoy their formidable 3D printing technology in action in this video by FRANCE 24 English or catch up on it in our previous blog article.
Their cooperation partner Best Meister is excited about the project as well, especially with the extraordinary technological approach, as CEO Ori Zaguri stated after the food truck taste-test:
“We’ve been excited by Redefine Meat’s unique alternative meat offering for a while, but the food truck event cemented it for us. Not only was consumer feedback overwhelmingly positive but Redefine Meat’s technology will also provide us the scale to create a wide-variety of quality meat cuts for our customers on-demand from one single source. We believe the mass meat-eater market is ready for alternative meat of this quality and we are excited to be the first to deliver it to them.”
What are you thinking of vegan meat-alternatives? Would you consider trying one, now that print technology is involved? And are there any other print projects you want us to look into or check up on? Comment below to let us know!
