Plant-Based Startup Reveals ‘Most Realistic’ Version Of Its 3D-Printed ‘Steak’

Spanish startup NovaMeat has revealed the ‘most realistic’ version of its 3D-printed plant-based steak.

The meat-free product extrudes ingredients such as pea, seaweed, and beetroot juice into fine fibers to replicate ‘muscle tissue’. It aims to launch in select restaurants in Spain and Italy first and scale up on production next year.

‘Holy grail’

Currently, the 50g steak produced is priced at £1.15 ($1.50) but is predicted to come down as the company aims to use a plant that can produce 50kg of vegan steak per hour in 2021.

Giuseppe Scionti, Founder of NovaMeat told The Guardian: “I started with steak I think because it is the holy grail of plant-based meat,” adding that the company was still experimenting with the taste.

‘Growing demand

According to Food Navigator, The Good Food Institue (GFI) has shown support for the startup, with Director of Science and Technology David Welch stating: “To meet the growing demand for meat with more sustainable plant-based products, we need to deliver the taste, texture, and appearance that meat-eaters want.

“NovaMeat’s bioprinting-based technology provides a flexible and tunable method of producing plant-based meat, with the utility to create different textures from a wide variety of ingredients all within a single piece of meat.”