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meat

January 16, 2019

Shiok Meats is The First Cell-Based Meat Company in Southeast Asia

If you’ve been on the internet in the past, oh, year or so, you’ve probably heard some media buzz about cell-based meat: animal tissue produced outside of an animal. But the pool of companies working in this space is actually pretty small in terms of product and geography.

Cellular aquacultured startup Shiok Meats is pushing the industry envelope on both accounts. Firstly, they’re developing ways to make cell-based crustaceans. Companies are working on ground beef, steak, pork sausages, salmon, and tuna — but as far as I’ve heard (and granted, some companies are in stealth mode), Shiok is the first to tackle crab, lobster, and shrimp.

When I spoke with Shiok Meats CEO and co-founder Dr. Sandhya Sriram, my first question was about texture. Replicating meat’s texture is one of the biggest challenges for cellular agriculture/aquaculture companies, and crustaceans in particular have a toothsome bite that seems like it would be much harder to copy than, say, ground beef or processed pork sausage. But Sriram is undaunted. “Yes, the technology and science are different [than other clean meat companies,] but we all have similar challenges,” she told me. They also won’t be trying to make the shell, which keeps things simpler. And with new innovations continuously being developed to facilitate cell growth, such as edible scaffolds, perhaps Shiok’s relatively late entrance will serve them well.

The fact that I could eventually taste a cell-based lobster roll is certainly exciting, but what’s more notable about Shiok Meats is its location. The startup is based in Singapore, which makes it, according to Sriram, the first cell-based meat company in Southeast Asia.

This is huge. Asia is the largest meat producer in the world, making 40-50 percent of the world’s meat. From a consumption perspective, there’s expected to be a 78 percent increase in demand for meat and seafood by year 2050. Yet the vast majority of cultured meat companies are based in the U.S. or, across the Atlantic, in the U.K. and Israel. (The notable exception is Shojinmeat, a Japanese company open sourcing clean meat production.) It makes sense that a company is bringing cell-based meat, which some herald as the solution to the evils of industrial meat consumption, to one of the regions where it could make the biggest impact.

But the choice to operate out of Singapore brings plenty of challenges. At the Alternative Protein Show this week in San Francisco, Sriram spoke about the differences between operating a cell-based meat company in the U.S. vs. Asia. Cultured meat companies in the U.S. have more access to funding and infrastructure than they would in Asia, and American and European consumers are more amenable to the concept of meat grown outside the animal.

Sriram told me that they expect to bring their first product to market in 3-5 years, with a taste test happening in the next year in high-end restaurants. Their target market is Asia-Pacific, so they’ll start rolling out products in Singapore, Hong Kong, and India, then eventually move onto Australia. Eventually, Shiok will sell their cell-based crustaceans to food companies who will incorporate their products into frozen meals.

For now, Shiok Meats is still in the R&D phase. They’ve developed a media (food which helps the animal cells grow) made of synthetic and plant-based substances, so they don’t have to use the very contentious Fetal Bovine Serum. They just closed their pre-seed round for an undisclosed amount and are working on raising a seed round over the next few months.

Currently, Shiok Meats just staffed by Sriram and her co-founder Ka Yi Ling. Compared to “veteran” cell-based meat companies like Memphis Meats, which was founded in 2015, the startup is small, young, and untested. But because of its location, Shiok Meats has the potential to make a global impact that could far outweigh cultured meat companies in the U.S. and Europe.

January 10, 2019

Video: Why Impossible Foods Thinks They Can Make Better Meat Than a Cow

On the first night of CES, we hit up the Impossible Foods press conference to try their new and improved burger 2.0. The verdict: juicy, savory, and delicious.

But before the actual taste test began, the Impossible team set the stage with a short panel featuring CEO Dr. Pat Brown, Chief Science Officer David Lipman, and Mary Sue Milliken, owner and chef of Border Grill, who hosted the unveiling and cooked all the delicious food.

Check out the full conversation below to learn why Dr. Brown thinks that food is “the most fundamental and ancient human technology,” one that he and his team is constantly working to improve it. “Unlike the cow, we are going to be getting better every single day from now until forever.” Next up: steak. 

The Full Impossible Burger 2.0 Press Conference at CES 2019

January 9, 2019

Beyond Meat Debuts Their Own Burger 2.0 with New Protein Formula

This week at CES Impossible Foods unveiled their “burger 2.0” amid lots of fanfare and mini-sliders.

They’re actually the second plant-based company this week to debut a new and improved version of their product. On January 2nd, Beyond Meat announced the release of their own “Beyond Burger 2.0″ (albeit with much less pomp). The new iteration still has pea protein (the primary ingredient of the original burger), and also adds mung bean and rice proteins into the mix. It’s apparently lower in saturated fat and has a better, more meat-like texture than the Burger 1.0.

As far as I can tell, this is the first big product revamp by Beyond since they launched their burger back in 2016. I haven’t tried it yet, but I have tried the Impossible burger 2.0 and have to say, it’s a high taste bar for Beyond to beat.

But in the end, it doesn’t really matter: plant-based meat companies’ biggest competition isn’t each other, it’s the industrial meat industry. “If other people are making great products… we love it,” Ethan Brown told The Spoon in an interview. “They’re not our competition — they’re on the same mission we’re on.”

The announcement came two days after Beyond Meat announced its partnership with fast food chain Carl’s Jr. In addition to Carl’s Jr., their new “burger 2.0” will also be available at all A&W locations in Canada (who have been serving Beyond burgers since July 2018).

January 7, 2019

Impossible Foods Unveils New Gluten-Free Burger Recipe at CES

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is known as a time when companies debut cutting-edge technology like drones, robots, and… burgers?

Tonight plant-based meat company Impossible Foods unveiled new recipe for their popular “bleeding” vegan burgers. According to the release from Impossible, the new iteration will be gluten-free, have zero cholesterol, and contain as much iron and protein as conventional beef from cows. This marks the first time the Redwood City, CA-based startup has revamped their burger recipe since the patties debuted in 2016.

The new-and-improved burgers will launch tomorrow (January 8th) in an array of high-end restaurants, and Impossible stated over email that they will “likely” be available in grocery stores in 2019 (as long as Impossible gets FDA approval to sell its burgers in retail). So far, there’s no word when the new recipe will roll out to the over 5,000-odd locations — including all White Castles — which currently have Impossible burgers on their menu.

Impossible’s patties already contained no cholesterol and have comparable protein to ground beef — so essentially, the main difference is that the new patty is gluten-free. Which is actually kind of a big deal. “Wheat protein” is the first ingredient listed on the Impossible Foods website, followed by coconut oil, potato protein, and heme (which is what makes the burgers “bleed”). That means that the original Impossible patty was strictly off-limits for anyone with a gluten allergy, or who was just trying to cut down on gluten for health/dietary reasons.

Nixing the wheat protein certainly opens up potential new consumers for Impossible, but only if they can still deliver on taste without their primary ingredient. Which leads me to wonder: what exactly is the new burger made of? Impossible didn’t reveal the ingredients in their new burger, so we don’t know what they’re using to replace wheat. My guess is pea protein, the go-to protein choice of most alternative-meats including Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods’ biggest plant-based competitor. (Beyond Meat’s products are already gluten-free.) That could make it especially tricky for Impossible to differentiate itself when it heads onto retail shelves to compete directly with Beyond in 2019.

[Ed note: At the opening Impossible Foods revealed that the main ingredients in their new burgers are soy and potato protein, not pea protein as I’d guessed.]

Taking a step back, it’s interesting that Impossible Foods decided to make this announcement at CES, amid a sea of more “traditional” technologies like touchscreens and VR helmets. But when you think about it, plant-based meat is indeed a technology: one that’s changing the way we eat protein. In fact, it’s a technology that has the potential to improve our planet a lot quicker than something like self-driving cars. I for one hope we see more innovative food companies repping at events like CES in the future.

For now, CES attendees can try free samples of Impossible’s new burgers from a food truck outside the Las Vegas Convention Center from January 8-11. Stop by and let us know what you think!

January 6, 2019

Do Consumers Trust Big Food to Make Their Plant-Based Meat? Does It Matter?

When we released our story about Nestlé launching a meat-like, meatless patty dubbed the “Incredible Burger” last week, it sparked some… backlash from our audience. (To be clear: We welcome comments!) Here are a few examples:

Don't be fooled – This is not the company you want to be supporting if you are looking for eco friendly solutions

— Daniel Harris (@DanielSirrah) December 29, 2018

https://twitter.com/rebarrett/status/1079005375674834946

i'm all for more plant-based foods on the market, but as long as they're cruelty free. @Nestle has profited off of stolen water, done irreparable damage with its global anti-breastfeeding campaign, and continues to unnecessarily test on animals…PASS. #boycottnestle https://t.co/zIVXOMngV4

— kq/kelly quinn (@sociologyquinn) December 29, 2018

Basically, some readers were skeptical that they could trust Nestlé — which, like most Big Food companies, has a less-than-perfect reputation — to make plant-based food sustainably. These reactions made us at the Spoon wonder: as an eating trend (like plant-based food) goes mainstream, will consumers buy products regardless of the company that makes them?

At first, maybe not so much. During a conversation about the evolving plant-based meat market, The Spoon founder Mike Wolf speculated that earlier in the adoption curve people tend to be more value-driven, seeking out certain products motivated by the ethics of the manufacturing process, the sustainability quotient, or the reputation of the parent company. Early adopters often put more value in the ethics and mission of a product, like how Impossible Foods is out to save the planet by reducing meat consumption.

As Big Food companies like Nestlé concentrate on the meat alternatives space, early adopters might be skeptical of their motives and, therefore, their products. However, as you get to what Wolf calls “the Costco consumer” — one who’s more driven by more by price value than by, well, values — the company behind the product might not mean quite as much. These mainstream consumers aren’t buying the product to make a values statement: rather, they’re selecting it because of its reduced cost, good taste, or maybe even branding. In general, they won’t boycott a product because they don’t like the ethics of the company who makes it.

This sort of apathetic consumerism might grate with the more woke shoppers. But in a weird way, it shouldn’t. Young startups are all well and good, and have been doing a great job drumming up consumer interest in meat-like meat alternatives. However, if plant-based (and, down the road, cell-based) meat has a prayer of actually disrupting the industrial meat industry, Big Food pretty much needs to be involved.

Of course, how they get involved is important, too — in no way should Big Food companies get carte blanche. They shouldn’t use their sizeable market muscles to force out startups who are on a mission, or stifle new companies. Environmental concerns are also top of mind: plants may be more sustainable than meat, but Nestlé still has to be conscious the makings its ingredients, manufacturing processes, and packaging as sustainable as possible.

Tyson Foods has a 5 percent stake in Beyond Meat. (Photo: Beyond Meat.)

All this to say, some people — especially early adopters — might not like how Big Food companies entering the meat-like meat alternatives market with their Incredible burgers and vegan hot dogs. That’s perfectly alright. These objectors don’t have to get their plant-based protein from major CPG companies; there are plenty of other delicious options which, at least from the outside, seem to have the ethical upper hand.

But giant CPG companies like Nestlé have the manufacturing power, global reach, and distribution channels that can help plant-based meat go from (relatively) niche product to mainstream food staple: one that costs the same as or less than conventional meat. In order for alterna-meats to really catch on, they have to be within reach for the “Costco consumer.” And that pretty much inevitably means working with Big Food — even Nestlé.

Do you agree? Is getting Big Food involved the only way that meat alternatives can go mainstream? Sound off in the comments or on Twitter @TheSpoonTech! 

December 28, 2018

Nestlé Introduces Plant-Based “Incredible Burger” to Disrupt Beyond and Impossible

Nestlé SA is hoping to carve out a piece of the plant-based pie — er, burger.

Today Bloomberg reported that the Swiss food company will launch a meat-free patty modestly called the “Incredible Burger” (not to be confused with the Impossible Burger) under its Garden Gourmet brand. The burger will be made of soy and wheat protein, and will join Garden Gourmet‘s meat-free lineup, which already includes smoked sausages, nuggets, cheeseburgers, and schnitzel. It’s expected to head to market in spring of 2019.

This announcement isn’t especially surprising. Nestlé is one of several Big Food companies investing more heavily in plant-based foods, taking advantage of growing consumer demand for vegetarian and vegan products. It isn’t even the first meat-free play by Nestlé: last year the corporation acquired meat-free company Sweet Earth and recently bought a majority stake of plant-based food company Terrafertil.

However, the Incredible Burger is the first notable Big Food effort to compete directly with meat-free products meant to look, cook, and bleed like the real thing. Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods — we’re looking at you. These startups have a lot of name recognition and are basically synonymous with the new wave of plant-based “meat.” Comparatively, Nestlé is late to the game.

But is it too late? It depends where Nestlé focuses their efforts. Impossible and Beyond may have a hold on the U.S. market, but they haven’t expanded much outside of the U.S. (yet). Nestlé would be smart to concentrate on the European market, where, despite several competitors like Moving Mountains and Naturli’ Foods, there’s still plenty of room for it to carve out its own space in the plant-based meat market. Given Nestlé’s size, it already has scale, manufacturing, and sales channels it can leverage to expand quickly. However, Beyond is set to go public in 2019, so it could theoretically raise enough money to present a challenge to Big Food players like Nestlé — or at least scare them a bit.

In the end, the plant-based meat market isn’t a zero-sum game. Demand for meaty meatless foods is widely predicted to grow over the next year, and Europe especially has a huge appetite for plant-based protein. It may be late to the game, but Nestlé’s new burger will still likely see “incredible” success.

December 27, 2018

My Whole Family Tried the Impossible Slider from White Castle (and Loved It)

My family has a… rather unique Christmas tradition. For Christmas Eve lunch, when the 15-odd crew of us gather at my grandparents’ home outside of Cincinnati, OH, we have a White Castle slider eating competition. The record: twenty-one. (Blegh.)

As a vegetarian I usually have to abstain from this tradition. But this year, oh this year, I got to be a competitor. And it’s all thanks to Impossible Foods.

In September Impossible Foods, maker of the popular “bleeding” plant-based burger, rolled out their sliders to all 377 White Castle locations. So when we made our annual pilgrimmage to the local White Castle, I went along to pick up a dozen meat-free sliders as well.

I was surprised by how heavily White Castle was marketing the Impossible slider in stores, with giant window decals, BOGO coupons, and ample menu space. But maybe I shouldn’t have been. White Castle CEO Laura Ingram stated that sales of the meatless sliders “easily exceeded our expectations,” and is popular with both new and existing customers.

Here’s a poorly-shot visual comparison of the two burgers: Impossible on the left, traditional on the right:

Photo: Catherine Lamb for the Spoon.

The Impossible slider comes with a two-ounce meat-free patty, smoked cheddar cheese, pickles, and onions, and costs $1.99. A typical White Castle slider is $.79 cents (without cheese), and has a one-ounce beef patty, pickles, and onions. At $1.99, the Impossible slider is almost three times the price of the $.79 regular slider — but it’s also a lot heftier.

As you can see from the photo, the Impossible slider is just, well, better looking than the beef one. It’s bigger, the bun is fluffier (I’m not why they use different buns for the two, but they do), and with the cheese peeking out it just looks tastier. The patty itself is also quite a bit bigger and looks almost more like meat than the thin rectangular slice of the actual beef patty.

When it comes to taste, I also think that the Impossible slider delivered. With two ounces of “meat” the slider has a toothsome bite, and the smoked cheddar and sharp pickles pack a flavorful — and very salty — punch. I didn’t mind the savoriness but several of my family members found the sliders too salty for their liking.

In fact, many of my family members, who are die-hard White Castle lovers, actually said they liked the Impossible slider better than the original. Their one complaint: it didn’t have the same richy, meaty smell.

The sliders were also very well-done and didn’t “bleed” when we bit into them. Which isn’t especially surprising, since that’s pretty par for the course for fast-food burgers, but I’m disappointed that I still haven’t experienced the “bleeding” Impossible effect.

In the end, I only managed four meatless sliders and lost the contest (the winner ate twelve). However, we emerged with quite a few plant-based burger converts, many of whom said they would gladly order one of the burgers if they saw it on a menu — or on a grocery shelf — down the road.

That’s exactly what Impossible was hoping would happen. As I wrote back in September, the White Castle partnership is part of Impossible’s long-term goal to make their products more accessible and affordable. Judging from my experience, I’d say that so far they’re doing a great job.

December 21, 2018

With the Growth of “Bleeding” Burgers, How are the Tofurky’s of the World Faring?

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods forever changed the plant-based meat industry when they rolled onto the scene with vegan burgers that looked, cooked, and tasted like the real thing. A veggie burger used to mean a patty made of black beans, quinoa, and a few vegetables. It was usually reserved for vegetarians and vegans, and many carnivores didn’t see a reason to go near it.

But now there’s a new consumer group in town: the flexitarian. Flexitarians are working to cut down on their meat consumption, and, for a growing number, that means turning to plant-based meats to replace the real thing. That’s exactly who Beyond and Impossible are targeting. Their meat-like burgers (and, in Beyond’s case, chicken strips and sausage) are specifically meant to appeal to consumers who don’t want a black bean burger but something as close to a beef burger as you can get without the cow.

Recently I got curious: If meat-like meat alternatives are all the rage and catalyzing huge growth in the plant-based meat category, how are the OG, less “sexy” veggie burgers and soy-sausages faring? The Boca burgers? The Tofurkys? The Field Roast sausages?

According to Erin Ransom, Director of Marketing for Tofurky, these early vegan food companies are doing quite well for themselves right now. She explained that the growing popularity of plant-based foods, spurred by media darlings like Beyond and Impossible, has translated to increased demand for the veteran vegan meat companies, too.

Dan Curtin, President of Greenleaf Foods, which includes vegan meat companies Lightlife and Field Roast, also acknowledges the impact that Beyond and Impossible have had on the plant-based meat category. “What [they’ve] done is bring attention to this category and help support it,” he told me over the phone.

Photo: Field Roast sausages.

On one hand, that growth is great for the plant-based meat industry. It means that vegan proteins are more widely accessible (and appealing) to people across the country, not just in urban areas. On the other, that uptick in demand translates to pressure on the manufacturers to increase production. Tofurky, for example, is having difficulty filling their orders. They’re not alone: companies like Beyond Meat have also been experiencing difficulty keeping their products on shelves. “It’s a unique conundrum,” said Ransom.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t ways for plant-based meat companies to fulfill demand. But, as Ransom told me, it probably won’t be a single solution. Existing players will build more production facilities. Supply chains will become more sophisticated, and technology more efficient. Investment will (continue to) pour into the space. More small startups will enter the market. So will Big Food, including industrial meat companies, who can help amp up production capacity for plant-based meats and also ensure good product placement on retail shelves.

Though they may be grateful for the influence of Beyond/Impossible, that doesn’t mean veteran vegan meat companies will try to copy their meat-like products exactly. “We’re not chasing the ‘bleeding anomaly’ [of the Impossible burger],” Ransom told me.

But the effects are clear. Tofurky is working to ensure their newer products, from shredded “chicken” to vegan ham, have the same taste, texture, and mouthfeel as animal protein. Earlier this year Boca Burgers reformulated and rebranded their classic veggie patty, making their burgers bigger and “meatier” to appeal to flexitarians. Lightlife’s website claims its products are “meat without the Middleman.” They may not be trying to make a bleeding burger, but they are definitely trying to make a meat-like burger.

One thing I wonder is how vegetarians and vegans feel about all this. If they don’t want to eat meat in the first place, will they want to eat plant-based meat that is trying to act like meat? Or are companies like Field Roast and Boca alienating their original consumers as they reformulate to appeal more to flexitarians?

As of now, most of these vegan meat veterans still offer classic products like black bean and quinoa burgers. But if flexitarianism continues to grow (and I don’t see why it wouldn’t) vegan meat companies will likely continue to shift their image to become meat companies. The meat just happens to be made out of plants.

December 18, 2018

Sophie’s Kitchen’s “Toona” Poised to Feed Untapped Plant-Based Seafood Market

If you’re on the hunt for a plant-based burger or chicken strip, there’s no lack of options. Looking for some fish-free salmon, or a vegan shrimp? That’s a lot harder to catch (sorry, I had to).

That may not be so tough in the future. Sebastopol, California-based Sophie’s Kitchen is bringing plant-based seafood to the grocery aisle. Founder and CEO Eugene Wang first got the idea for the company when his daughter Sophie had a severe allergic reaction to seafood.

Wang also knew firsthand about the problem of overfishing: he grew up in Taiwan and noticed how fishermen there were struggling more and more to find a daily catch. “I could see that the seafood stock is really dwindling,” he said. He’s not wrong: according to the U.N., around 90 percent of the world’s stocks are currently depleted or overfished, though demand for fish continues to rise steadily.

In 2010 Wang decided to make an alterna-seafood product to serve people with allergies and also help relieve the overfished oceans in the process. After spending almost two years developing the product, Sophie’s Kitchen launched their first product — plant-based shrimp — in retail in early 2012. They soon rolled out fish filets, crab cakes, and smoked salmon, and currently offer eight products, with four more coming out soon.

To copy the complex texture of fish, shrimp, and more, the company uses an ingredient called konjac, a Japanese yam root. When combined with pea protein and put through Wang’s patent-pending manufacturing process, the root can imitate the “rubbery” texture of shellfish.

Sophie’s Kitchen’s smoked “salmon.”

Sophie’s Kitchen’s plant-based seafood is sold exclusively in grocery stores, including Safeway, HEB and Whole Foods. As of now, the company’s most popular product is vegan tinned tuna (“toona”), which supermarkets hope will help them capitalize off of plant-based food trends and attract more millennials to the canned food aisles.

While it may appeal to eco-conscious consumers, the “toona” falls behind traditional canned tuna in a few ways. First of all, it’s a lot pricier — roughly two to three times more expensive as the bargain brands (as are all of Sophie’s Kitchen’s products). It also has less protein than regular tuna and doesn’t contain any of those heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acids, though Wang said he’s exploring ways to synthesize them from plants.

Like the entire plant-based seafood space, Sophie’s Kitchen has a lot of growing and development to do. It has already come a long way: according to Wang, when they started in 2010, the concept of plant-based edibles was “not a thing” — for seafood or meat. But now they’re far from alone. New Wave Foods makes shrimp alternatives out of algae. Good Catch Foods has developed seafood-free crab cakes, shredded tuna (not canned), and fish patties.

I can’t speak to the taste of their products, but when it comes to reach, Sophie’s Kitchen is pretty far ahead of the curve. New Wave Foods is only in three stores, and Good Catch won’t be on shelves until February 2019. Sophie’s Kitchen is available in over 2,000 stores nationwide and also sells in China, Israel, and France.

Sophie’s Kitchen is self-funded and has three employees. The company won a prize of 200,000 SGD (~$146,000) at the Slingshot Startup Pitching Competition in Singapore in 2017. It will also join the inaugural class of PepsiCo’s North American Nutritional Greenhouse Program.

It’s a good time to be in the plant-based seafood industry. Plant-based foods are growing in popularity and are projected to heat up significantly 2019 — and seafood is no exception. With cultured seafood likely years away from reaching retail shelves, products from Sophie’s Kitchen and others are poised to experience some serious demand. Hopefully they’ll be able to ramp up production and keep their hooks in the emerging market.

December 18, 2018

Study: Carbon Footprint Labeling Impacts Shopper Behavior

The COP24 United Nations Climate Change Conference wrapped up last week, and while the outcome of the conference was generally positive, the world is still facing an increasingly dire future for our planet.

One change people can make to help save the world is altering what they eat. Transitioning away from meat to a more plant-based diet can help reduce the global greenhouse emissions that come from food production. And a new study from the University of Technology Sydney and Duke University shows that simply labeling food with its carbon footprint may be a way to get people to eat less meat.

It turns out, many people don’t understand the carbon consequences of their food choices, and the study found that they greatly underestimate the carbon footprint of the foods they eat.

“With an appliance such as a heater you can feel the energy used and see an electricity bill at the end of the month, so the impact is quite salient, whereas the impact of food production is largely invisible,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Adrian Camilleri in a statement.

So the study created a carbon footprint labeling system for food similar to the five star energy ratings given to appliances. From the press release announcing the study’s findings:

They presented 120 participants with a choice of soups to buy. When the soups had a carbon footprint label, participants bought fewer beef soups and more vegetable soups than when there was no label provided.

The research suggests that the introduction of carbon footprint labels on food items could be a simple intervention to increase understanding of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from food production, and thus reduce environmental impacts.

While not comprehensive, this study fits in with previous market research that shows grocery shoppers today want more information about the products they buy. Millennials in particular care about more social issues like animal welfare, fair trade, and, it would stand to reason, environmental impact.

If carbon footprint labeling were to catch on, this would presumably be a boon to alternative or “fake” meat companies like Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods and Seattle Food Tech, which are creating plant-based simulacra of our favorite meats. But more importantly, it looks like a small thing like a food label could have a big impact on our planet.

December 12, 2018

Aleph Farms Puts a Steak in the Ground, Unveils New Cell-Based Cut of Meat

Israeli startup Aleph Farms has unveiled what it calls “the first cell-grown minute steak” — that is, the first steak made from cow cells, but grown outside a cow in a bioreactor.

Up until now, companies such as Finless Foods, JUST, and Mosa Meats have made cultured tuna, chicken nuggets, and hamburgers, respectively. But cell-based steak, with its complex, sliceable texture, has remained elusive.

I spoke with Aleph Farms CEO Didier Toubia back in May about their plans to make the first cultured steak:

“Instead of starting with a simpler ground “meat” product and later developing 3D tissue-growing technology, [Aleph Farms] is hoping to skip ahead and bring a fully developed product — one with the same texture, structure, and taste as beef — to market.

To do that, their scientists are working on growing four types of cells: muscle, fat, blood vessels, and connective tissue… Once they cultivate the various types of cells, they place them on scaffolds which act as a framework for the cells to cling onto. That way, the four types of cells can grow together into a finished product with the shape of steak — not just blobs of separate cell types in petri dishes that have to be manually combined.”

Wall Street Journal senior correspondent Jason Bellini got to taste this new cut of cell-based meat on camera. In the video, Amir Ilan, a chef at the restaurant Paris Texas in Israel, seared the thin slices of pre-cooked steak about the size of a credit card. (Interestingly, the camera crew was not allowed to film raw slices of the steak.) He served the meat with a truffle glaze and mushrooms. The consensus? “It’s pretty good, I have to say,” said Bellini between chews. “It’s pretty close to a regular steak… it passes.”

For now, the size and texture of Aleph Farms’ steaks are limited. They can’t grow them bigger than a few inches and no thicker than a few centimeters. Though companies are working to create bigger and better-textured cuts of cultured meat through 3D printing or using plants as scaffolds, texture remains one of the biggest challenges in making cell-based meat taste like the real thing.

Aleph Farms’ news comes just a day after JUST, a San Francisco startup most known for their plant-based foods, announced that it has partnered with Japanese producer Toriyama to create the first cell-based Wagyu. Though they’re planning to make a burger instead of a steak, the one-two punch speaks to how quickly the field of cultured meat is accelerating — though it’ll be a while yet (at least a year) before JUST’s product is to market.

If you want to try Aleph Farms’ steaks, you’ll have to wait even longer. While the company didn’t give an exact timeline, the WSJ video stated that their cultured steak is still at least two years away. But the implications of this first taste test are still significant. As I wrote back in May, “If they can nail the texture of a steak, Aleph Farms has a real shot at converting even the most hardcore of carnivores.” It seems that the startup has taken one big step closer to that goal.

December 11, 2018

JUST Partners with Toriyama to Create Cheaper Cultured Wagyu Beef … Eventually

This morning, plant-based food company JUST, Inc. announced that it will work with Japanese producer Toriyama to develop the first cultured Wagyu beef.

The San Francisco-based company will use tissue samples taken from Toriyama’s Wagyu cows (or cuts of their beef) and use that to create cell lines to grow the meat cells. Awano Food Group, a meat and seafood supplier, will market and distribute the cell-based meat, and Toriyama will get a percentage of the profit from each pound of meat that JUST sells.

But hold the applause — there are still quite a few problems JUST has to tackle before we can taste Wagyu grown outside the cow.

In a video with the Wall Street Journal, JUST CEO Josh Tetrick said that they would debut a cultured Wagyu hamburger within “a year, a year and a half.” But the press announcement notes that “as with any other product, the first step is an extensive research and development period followed by scale-up, testing, regulatory approvals and availability to the public.” All of which are pretty significant hurdles, which have to be overcome before the cell-based Wagyu can get on our plate.

Let’s start with the first issue: R&D. At this point, achieving the buttery texture of Wagyu steak is out of the question. Though some scientists are working on 3D printing meat to create different textures, or even using plants as scaffolds on which to grow the animal tissue, we’re not going to see a thick, marbled cut of cultured Wagyu anytime soon. Even Aleph Farms, the company in Israeli developing the first cell-based steak, is years away from bringing its product to market.

However, it seems like JUST is planning to avoid the steak issue altogether by making a Wagyu hamburger. From a get-to-market stance, that makes a lot of sense; but I have to wonder if it will taste all that different from any other cell-based ground beef. After all, most scientists “grow’ the meat tissue and fat cells separately and then combine them, so they can make their ground beef as fatty as they’d like. That essentially negates Wagyu’s biggest unique value add: its rich fat marbling.

Then there’s regulation. The USDA and FDA already took the first few steps towards establishing a regulatory process last month, but if JUST is planning to release their burger within a year or so, the issues around naming and food safety might not be ironed out. JUST is planning to bring a poultry cell-based product to market by the end of this year, however (though they have yet to do so). If they succeed, there will theoretically be at least some regulatory precedent in place before the Wagyu comes onto the scene.

The regulatory piece of the puzzle brings up another question: Will JUST be able to sell its new product with the label of “Wagyu”? The term is a specific Japanese beef cattle breed which dates back thousands of years and carries a lot of weight with discerning carnivores. Clearly Toriyama doesn’t have a problem with JUST using the name, but I wonder if other Wagyu producers will have the same laissez-faire attitude.

There’s also the issue of terroir, or the natural elements that give local foods, like Parmesan or Champagne, their inimitable flavor. For example, Crowd Cow has an olive Wagyu that has a legendary taste because the animals are fed caramelized olives (side note: yum). It seems like this level of nuance and locality would be reaaaaally tricky to translate into meat cultivated in a sanitized room.

However, JUST’s partnership with Toriyama does illustrate one of the coolest potentials of cell-based meats: accessibility. With its intense fat marbling, Wagyu is widely considered the Holy Grail for carnivores. It’s also really expensive; to give you an idea, Costco once sold it for $109.09 per pound. In their press release, JUST states that it hopes to use its technology to decrease the cost of Wagyu, so it can share the meat with more people at more amenable “price-points.” Which might indeed be possible… if and when they succeed in producing a product with the distinct Wagyu-ness of Wagyu.

JUST is known for pushing the envelope on cell-based meat technology. If it does succeed in creating a Wagyu product, its success (or failure) will pave the way for other companies working to recreate specific heritage meat types with cell culture technology.

This piece was updated with new information about the Wagyu product timeline from a WSJ video. 

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