Aleph Farms unveils the first 3-D printed meat

An Israel-based company, Aleph Farms, has unveiled a slice of 3-D printed meat. The final product looks to be surprisingly natural. The company aims to shift the paradigm of meat production and consumption globally;it first started working on its cruelty-free cultivated beef in 2018 but has scaled it up for mass production via 3-D-printing.

This is a pioneering step in bioprinting or 3-d printing technology. The experiment was done in collaboration with research partners at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. It used the living bovine cells and cultivated them in a lab environment to replicatea natural steak's texture and qualities.

The company used a technique called vascularization that occurs naturally in tissues. It gave the meat the same texture and shape found in a real flesh of a cow. This technique can also be used to mass-produce meat without harming any animal. Although the meat was artificially produced, Aleph claims that it had qualities of"a delicious tender, juicy rib-eye steak you'd buy from the butcher.

"We recognize some consumers will crave thicker and fattier cuts of meat. This accomplishment represents our commitment to meeting our consumer's unique preferences and taste buds, and we will continue to progressively diversify our offerings," Aleph's chief executive Didier Toubia said in a statement. Additionally, the steak could also be customized to a particular country or palate. For example, it could be made more or less tender, according to a consumer's taste.