A modern-day version of the Star Trek replicator, a machine from Steakholder Foods that prints ... [+]
“We are recreating Star Trek. That is amazing.”
The quote is from Arik Kaufman, CEO of Israel-based Steakholder Foods, a young company working with Umami Meats of Singapore to develop 3D-printed structured eel and grouper products. The Star Trek reference is to the magical replicator from the popular science fiction TV series that could create meals on demand.
But this is science fact, Kaufman says.
Steakholder and Umami are using a $1 million grant from the Singapore Israel Industrial R&D Foundation to scale up a process for producing cultivated fish products, starting with eel and grouper. Also known as cultured meat, this is made from animal cells rather than slaughtered animals.
It’s “made up of muscle and fat tissue grown from animal cells and being developed to be indistinguishable from farm-raised meat in taste, texture and smell,” Steakholder explains on its website. “The difference, however, is cultured meat’s potential to transform the meat industry by being more sustainable and eco-friendly than farm-raised meat.”
A printed steak as an example of the fish products in development
Right now, Singapore is the only country where cultivated meat has regulatory approval. But Kaufman sees the United States as its main target for the future.
There’s a clear pathway toward regulatory approval in the U.S., he says. As noted in a report by Sustainable Brands, the White House announced support for cell-cultured food last year, followed by a Global Food Security Research Strategy.
“For sure, we will see ourselves expanding in the U.S.,” Kaufman says, “and it may also be the way of commercializing our printer” by selling and leasing to other companies.
The Steakholder-Umami collaboration has a hybrid grouper prototype right now, expected out by the first quarter of 2023.
They’ll create the food using Steakholder’s 3D bio-printing technology and bio-inks customized for Umami cells, according to a news release.
Umami Meats is a cultivated fish and seafood company. Steakholder will use a new patent-pending technology that mimics the flaky texture of cooked fish.
“Our first prototype is like a fourth-generation printer,” Kaufman says. “Very high output, like a BMW Series 5.”
Steakholder Foods, as the name suggests, is further along on technology that prints cultured meats, the CEO says. An industrial-scale printer on hand can product tons per day or “a steak in less than half a minute.”
Printing meat and fish is for a good cause, says Kaufman of Steakholder (Nasdaq: STKH), launched in 2019. That’s because cultivated fish (and other printed, cultured products) can lessen the demand for commercially caught and raised varieties.
“There’s a huge demand in the U.S. for fish in general ... The current industry cannot cope with the demand we see. A lot of species are disappearing.
“It’s a huge market, very attractive. I believe that the market will get used to these cultured fish products much, much sooner than other products.”
Steakholder says cultured meat has a significantly lower carbon footprint than conventional meat, citing information from consulting agency CE Delft.
Steakholder and Umami plan to test everything in-house as part of the latest development. “You need to perfect the taste, texture, safety-wise,” Kaufman says.
The collaboration hasn’t showcased a product that tastes exactly the same as real fish, yet.
A raw fresh grouper fish filet like the cultivated kind that Steakholder is developing
“I do believe that the level of challenge with respect to cultivating fish is lower ... than the culture cattle industry,” the CEO says.
The texture of fish is less-challenging than cultivated meat, he explains, and the first product to market will be part of an ever-improving process.
“In the end, you’ll see a (fish) product that will be exactly the same, exactly the same. Not almost the same. Exactly the same.”
