Tel Aviv When Eshchar Ben-Shitrit set about implementing his vision of “good meat without animals” four years ago, he did not yet know how it could be technically realized. He had no previous knowledge in the field of food tech. After military service in Jerusalem, he studied law, then worked at the Supreme Court and later in a start-up before joining HP in the Industry Solutions department.
But the idea of producing meat on a purely plant-based basis had bothered him over the years, says the 37-year-old Israeli young entrepreneur. Especially since he couldn’t find any animal substitutes that met his culinary requirements.
His solution to the problem is surprising at first glance: Unlike the competition, he prints the meat substitutes with a 3D printer. But for the founder, the idea was not so far-fetched. Cows are just “biological 3D printers,” he says.
The strategy consultancy Strategy& from PWC sees a huge market for this. The global market for plant-based meat substitutes could grow to around 26 billion euros by 2030, they predict in the recently published study “The Sustainable Food Revolution”.
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In order to make food production more sustainable, “innovative production technologies such as 3D printing are particularly crucial, which companies in the food sector should promote now because they can ensure the supply of the population, but also future market potential,” explains Catarina Bjelkengren from Strategy&.
Raised $170 million in capital
Ben-Shitrit’s start-up, which aims to reinvent meat, now employs 250 people. In addition to development laboratories and production facilities in a suburb of Tel Aviv, sales and PR teams in Germany, Great Britain and Holland are on the payroll. He is currently selling his products to around 750 restaurants in Israel and Europe. In Israel, a pilot test is currently being carried out in butcher shops and in a supermarket chain.
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At first, raising money was difficult. “Nobody believed in us, the idea sounded crazy,” recalls Ben-Shitrit. Back then, four years ago, the foodtech industry was still in its infancy and largely unknown. Today, Israel ranks second in the world, after the US, in both the number of cultured meats and the number of investors in alternative proteins.
The country is now home to more than 400 foodtech companies, over 100 of which are in the alternative protein space. “More than 40 percent of these companies are considered start-ups, but their breakthrough technology has the potential to help shape the future of our nutrition,” say industry insiders.
In the meantime, the former kibbutznik has raised capital of 170 million dollars in several rounds. There are always people who are enthusiastic about a visionary idea and take part with enthusiasm, says Ben-Shitrit.
Printers and cartridges for meat dealers
Ben-Shitrit grew up on a kibbutz, where he was surrounded by animals. His mother milked the cows early in the morning on the cooperative farm, and as a teenager he helped out at a relative’s restaurant in Tel Aviv. “Cooking was one of my passions from an early age,” he says. Almost overnight, however, he decided to give up meat in the future. As a result, however, he missed the taste and texture of steaks.
So he decided to look for a plant-based substitute himself. He quit his job at HP and gave his start-up a meaningful name: Redefine Meat. He didn’t have a safety net in case of failure, which condemned him to success. Initially he experimented in his parents’ house: his father, an artist, had recently switched to digital art, the studio in the basement had become vacant because it had migrated to the computer.
Ben-Shitrit was inspired by the printer business he encountered at HP. His goal was to recreate the structure of the meat, fiber by fiber, containing everything that makes a steak, such as fat and blood. Unlike competitors, who mostly make ground beef products that often lack the fibrous texture of animal meat, he pulls out of the printer whole cuts of lamb and beef that closely resemble the animal product, he says.
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But his innovation is not limited to printing, Ben-Shitrit clarifies. The central element is the “ink”: It consists of vegetable components that reflect the cow’s diet and contains, for example, proteins from legumes and grains to simulate the muscle properties of the alternative meat. In addition, the “ink” consists of vegetable fats to imitate the beef fat, as well as natural flavors and colors to imitate the blood factor in the meat and its juiciness as faithfully as possible.
In total, he has registered ten patents for Redefine Meat, three of which are directly related to 3D printing. The company later intends to sell the printers and the cartridges to meat merchants worldwide, who can both print and distribute the meat.
Plant-based pork sausage for the Oktoberfest
While meat prices are trending upwards, alternative meats are becoming cheaper “because we’re investing in the technology,” says the entrepreneur. And it is “naturally” healthier than the “real” meat because it reduces the risk of cancer and cholesterol consumption.
Redefine Meat has now developed a pork sausage especially for the German market, which was first sold at the Oktoberfest. They have “the same degree of juiciness and the same chewing sensation” as conventional pork products, says Ben-Shitrit.
The founder of Redefine Meat develops plant-based meat substitutes from the 3D printer.
(Photo: ddp images/Ferrari Press)
The nutrition expert Katarina Schickling confirms this: she would not notice in a blind tasting that she was eating something made from peas and rice – and not from pork, says the author of the book “My Food Compass”. From November, the plant-based sausage will not only be available in Germany, but also in Great Britain and the Netherlands.
Ben-Shitrit even consulted rabbis to see if vegan pork would be tolerated in the Jewish state, with its strict kosher rules. The beef and lamb imitations have already been recognized by them as “parve”, i.e. “neutral”, which means that after consumption, dairy products can be enjoyed without violating religious rules. These stipulate that dairy and meat products should not be mixed.
But when it came to the pork sausage, the rabbis weren’t cooperative. Although it is made from purely plant-based products, they refuse to put a kosher stamp on it. They feared breaking through a “symbolic barrier”.
More: Market for meat alternatives is growing strongly – more competition for veggie pioneer Rügenwalder