Advances in clean meat production

THE development and production of beef grown directly from animal cells continues to excite the food industry because the technology has little environmental impact. Known as clean meat – it is derived from extracted cow cells replicated in a clean environment and not in an animal.

Until recently, clean meat has been limited to simple structures of one or two types of cell tissue, limiting its applications to ground meat. But Aleph Farms Ltd, one of the few engaged in clean meat, said it has two new advances, namely expanding the composition of the meat itself and growing it in a more structured way.

“It has been a major hurdle to mimic meat’s many properties, such as texture, shape, juiciness, and flavour,” said Prof. Shulamit Levenberg, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Aleph Farms. “Our use of the four cell types found in conventional cuts of meat, including vascular and connective tissues, is the key to a product that will be closer to the beef that people crave.”

The company’s 3D technology relies on creating a complex tissue composed of the four core meat cell types. These cells are grown on an intricate proprietary 3D platform.

Aleph’s clean meat mimics traditional cuts of beef in both structure and texture, but without beef’s huge environmental impact, its heavy resource requirements, or its contribution to climate change.

Prof Levenberg is currently the Dean of the Bio-Medical Engineering Faculty at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, a top science and technology research institution.  She earned her Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute and did her post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Scientific American named Levenberg one of the world’s 50 leading scientists for her groundbreaking interdisciplinary work in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Now, she’s using her expertise to advance clean meat.

“Consumers – especially millennials and flexitarians – care about animal welfare and the environment,” explains Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO of Aleph Farms. “At the same time, they want to eat juicy, indulgent steak – not just ‘protein.’ Our goal is to help these consumers adhere to their personal standards, while getting to enjoy safe, sustainable meat.”

Bruce Friedrich, Executive Director of The Good Food Institute (GFI), a nonprofit promoting the clean meat industry said, “GFI’s objective is to help leading scientists and entrepreneurs apply their expertise to clean meat development. Israel’s startup mindset allows the team at Aleph to leverage this rich history and technological leadership to create breakthroughs in clean meat,” he says. “Aleph Farms’ advantages are its strong R&D capabilities, academic collaborations, and experienced team. These give the company a significant leg up!”

Aleph Farms (previously Meat-the-Future) was co-founded in 2017 by Israeli food-tech incubator The Kitchen, a part of the Strauss Group Ltd., and the Technion. The company is supported by US and European venture capital firms. It will exhibit at FoodTech TLV on May 7 in Tel-Aviv.