(28 Feb 2020) LEAD IN:
A Spanish startup says it's close to perfecting a plant-based steak, created using mixture-extruding 3D printers.
While companies Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have found success with replicating ground meat for burgers, Novameat is trying to crack the complicated fibrous textures of steak.
STORY-LINE:
Squeezing out of its nozzles, not plastic, but steak... a plant-based alternative, at least.
Spanish startup Novameat says it's close to perfecting a plant-based steak, perhaps as soon as summer this year.
3D printers, following complex three-dimensional digital models, are used to replicate fibrous textures.
Novameat first unveiled its 3D-printed plant-based steak back in 2018.
Now, founder and CEO Giuseppe Scionti believes they've perfected the texture and appearance, next is the taste and nutritional properties of beef steak.
"We have first tried to replicate what is the texture, then the appearance. And now we are working on the taste, and then nutritional properties," he says.
"So that we have something that is a plant-based steak, is done with a printer, but actually is indistinguishable from an actual steak."
While companies Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have found success with replicating ground meats, Novameat is trying to crack the complicated fibrous textures of steak.
Scionti's plant-based steak is printed using a paste of vegan ingredients. They're mainly using a mixture of rice and pea proteins and testing different oils.
He says the texture, replicated by 3D printers, was the hardest element to crack.
In the coming months, they plan to begin working with top chefs and scale up production to 50 kilograms per-hour.
"Our patented technology is not in 3D printing, it's in what we call micro-extrusion, so we can scale these up without the printer," says Scionti.
"We want to scale and produce at least 50 kilograms per-hour before the end of 2021."
Before founding Novameat, Scionti spent ten years as a researcher in tissue engineering.
The Italian bioengineer now wants to tackle the damaging emissions caused by the world's livestock industry, from methane produced by cows to emissions caused by transporting meat around the globe.
Estimates vary, but a report by the United Nations said livestock is responsible for about 15 percent of the world's gas emissions that warm the climate.
"The timing is perfect on the industry level because they are trying to incorporate this in the food industry, governmental level, they want to change the way they manage their resources off their land, their countries and avoid importing meat from other countries, and also the market pool that we are seeing," says Scionti.
"So, the people are asking for more and more meat replacements."
Today, Scionti and his colleagues are testing their "Steak 2.0" at restaurant Clubhaus in the centre of Barcelona.
Chefs lightly sear the digitally printed steaks on both sides, before adding some oil and seasoning, just like a traditional beef steak.
Clubhaus founder Joel Serra-Bevin is impressed.
"We're talking to the chefs. They were really surprised by the way it cooks the same as a steak. You put it on a plancha the same, you put the oil and the salt," he says.
"And I think if we can get a product that's as close to possible to steak, then it's for sure gonna be a top seller."
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