Aleph Farms Ltd announces it is heading towards the availability of its thin-cut beef steaks suitable for mass cultivation. The prototype of its commercial product will be first introduced at the Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit on November 20th in Singapore
To successfully grow whole pieces of meat, the company mimics the extra-cellular matrix found in animals with a plant-based matrix that enables the cells to grow and form structured tissues of meat. Its ‘cell-banks’ yield an unlimited source of pluripotent, non-GMO cow cells’ for growing large quantities of meat without the dependency on living animals.
Aleph Farms famously developed the world’s first cell-based burger back in 2018 and has since then increased the size of its slaughter-free product and adapted it to fit controlled, automated bioprocesses to ensure economic viability in large-scale production.
The move marks a major leap in Aleph Farms’ goal of making cultivated meat widely available in the global community. The company is currently transitioning its commercial products to pilot plant (BioFarmTM). The pilot launch is planned for the end of 2022.
“One of the big challenges of cultivated meat is the ability to produce large quantities efficiently at a cost that can compete with conventional meat industry pricing, without compromising on quality,” says Didier Toubia, Co-Founder and CEO of Aleph Farms. “We have developed five technological building blocks unique to Aleph Farms that are put into a large-scale production process, all patented by the company.”
“Aleph Farms is establishing a new category of meat, imbued with its own culture and a new world of meaty experiences,” enthuses Amir Ilan, the company’s Resident Chef.
“It’s not enough to just make a protein that will fill the nutritional gap; we need to capture the fullness of the meat-eating experience,” adds Toubia. As a French native with roots in food culture, and having studied food engineering in Dijon, Toubia brings his appreciation of gastronomic tradition to his unique cultivation technology. “Meat can be cultivated from cells isolated from different animal breeds, have different cuts, and it elicits different emotions. We see Aleph Farms as crafters of experiences.” Toubia concludes.