Aleph Farms and its research partner at the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, have cultivated their first slaughter-free ribeye steak, using 3D bioprinting technology and real cow cells, without genetic engineering or immortalisation.
With this proprietary technology, the company says it now has the ability to produce any type of steak and plans to expand its portfolio of quality meat products.
Aleph Farms says its 3D bioprinting technology is the printing of actual living cells that are then incubated to grow, differentiate, and interact, in order to acquire the texture and qualities of a real steak. A proprietary system, similar to the vascularization that occurs naturally in tissues, enables the perfusion of nutrients across the thicker tissue and grants the steak with the similar shape and structure of its native form as found in livestock before and during cooking.
“This breakthrough reflects an artistic expression of the scientific expertise of our team,” said Didier Toubia, Co-Founder and CEO of Aleph Farms. “I am blessed to work with some of the greatest people in this industry. We recognize some consumers will crave thicker and fattier cuts of meat. This accomplishment represents our commitment to meeting our consumer’s unique preferences and taste buds, and we will continue to progressively diversify our offerings.”
The cultivated ribeye steak is a thicker cut than the company's first product – a thin-cut steak. It incorporates muscle and fat similar to its slaughtered counterpart and features the same organoleptic attributes. “With the realization of this milestone, we have broken the barriers to introducing new levels of variety into the cultivated meat cuts we can now produce. As we look into the future of 3D bioprinting, the opportunities are endless,” said Technion Professor Shulamit Levenberg, Aleph’s Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Advisor and a major brainpower behind the company’s IP. Levenberg has spent more than two decades researching in the field at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in the United States and at the Technion, in Israel. Levenberg is also the former Dean of the Biomedical Engineering Faculty at the Technion.
