Slaughter-free ribeye anyone?

From future to fork

This Valentine’s Day ribeye steak will be off the menu for many romantics conscious of the moral and environmental impact of their food choices. But what if meat options like ribeye were available slaughter-free, could be produced in a way which actually preserved vital natural resources, and were made without using antibiotics?

Aleph Farms is an Israeli food-tech startup serving up such possibilities with its groundbreaking range of cultivated meat. Made using cells from the animal and biotechnology innovation, Aleph’s meat is made indoors saving valuable land and water resources.

And this week the company made history by producing the world’s first cultivated ribeye steak in collaboration with its research partner at the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology.

“We have successfully cultivated the world’s first slaughter-free ribeye steak, using three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting technology and natural building blocks of meat — real cow cells, without genetic engineering and immortalisation,” Aleph Farms said. “With this proprietary technology developed just two short years after we unveiled the world’s first cultivated thin-cut steak in 2018 which did not utilise 3D bioprinting, we now have the ability to produce any type of steak and plan to expand our portfolio of quality meat products.”

Here’s one we made earlier

To find out more about this impactful food company Marc Buckley caught up with two of its top team for the Inside Ideas podcast. Co-founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, Didier Toubia, and Dr Lee Recht, Head of Sustainability, talked with Marc about the different ways they are building an independent, sustainable and resilient food system at Aleph, with its own footprint. While they have clearly been busy pioneering world firsts in the few short months since appearing on the podcast, it is well worth a listen for anyone interested in how innovation is shaping the future of food.