By Jeanne Yacoubou, MS

Israeli startup Redefine Meat creates meat substitutes (alternative meat or alt-meat) from plant-based ingredients using a version of 3D-printing it calls additive manufacturing. According to the website, their products are “…plant-based, made with non-GMO ingredients, and do not contain any animal-based ingredients or by-products.”

What is additive manufacturing in alt-meat production?

Redefine Meat offers this explanation of additive manufacturing on its FAQ page: “Additive Manufacturing/3D printing…is precise, flexible, and can eliminate supply chain inefficiencies…3D printing…enables the production of exact formations that can duplicate the muscle and fat structures found in…whole-muscle cuts…3D printing also offers flexibility, facilitating the printing of different shapes, sizes, or combinations of “fat” and “muscle” without having to retool or reset the machines.”

More details on the technology behind additive manufacturing appear in a Vegconomist article by Daniel Dikovsky, Head of Innovation and Technology at Redefine Meat. In that article, Dikovsky describes how 3D printing is used to replicate slaughtered animal tissue.

In a process known as multi-material food printing, “…designed especially for alt-meat, the Redefine Meat 3D printer lays down blood, fat, and protein simultaneously at a voxel-level according to the digital structure mimicking that of animal meat. Furthermore, these ingredients can also be precisely combined on-the-fly during the printing process itself to create entirely new digital materials designed to replicate a specific animal composite…Using the same 3D printer, companies can print different meat types…and different meat cuts…by simply changing the digital file.”

Redefine Meat alt-meat products

An October 2022 article in Food Navigator reports that Redefine Meat offers meat analogs of beef and lamb flank cuts, ground beef, sausages, burgers, lamb kababs, and pulled meat. They are currently available in the foodservice sector in select countries including UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, France, and Israel.

A website FAQ states that Redefine Meat products “…are certified Kosher Pareve (non-dairy) by the relevant authorities, according to where each product is manufactured. For details on each Kosher certificate, please consult each package.” In another FAQ about Halal certification, the Company says their products are not certified Halal but “they meet the criteria.”

Ingredients in Redefine Meat

Based on the ingredient statements listed on their website, Redefine Meat products contain various combinations of all or most of the following primary ingredients:

• wheat, soy, pea, or potato proteins
• barley malt
• yeast extract
• coconut butter
• canola, sunflower oils

Spices, flavors, colors, or ingredients used to help regulate taste or texture of the final product vary.

VRG communication with Redefine Meat

The VRG asked Redefine Meat about its alt-meat. We wanted to confirm that no animal products, including animal or dairy genetic material, were involved in making them.

Here is our October 2022 email exchange with Robin Fine, a Business Development Representative with Redefine Meat:

The VRG: Could you please confirm:

1. Your products contain no animal-derived ingredients.
2. There is no animal- or dairy-derived genetic material used to make your products at any step in the process. This includes no animal DNA (including genes coding for dairy ingredients) from a digital library.

Redefine Meat: Redefine Meat products are made from plant-based ingredients and are 100% vegan. They include ingredients from a variety of food groups recommended in a balanced diet, including proteins, carbohydrates, and vegetable-based fats. Additional information about our products can be found in the product section of our website.

The VRG: The words “plant-based” and “vegan” mean different things to different people. So to get clarity on how you’re using them could you please confirm that your products:

1. Contain no animal-derived ingredients at all (including microingredients like animal-derived stearic acid or dairy-derived whey as well as macroingredients like gelatin or beef fat)
2. No animal- or dairy-derived genetic material – including virtual DNA – was inserted into microbes to produce animal and/or dairy proteins later used in your products. Nor was animal- or dairy-derived genetic material used in any other way during product design or manufacture.

Redefine Meat: Our products do not contain any of the…ingredients or materials [you mention] and are 100% plant-based.

The VRG noticed that in the website descriptions of only four of the 12 items listed in January 2023 were there “allergen advice” that the products “may contain” eggs and milk. We followed up with Redefine Meat:

The VRG: Why the difference in allergen warnings for the beef mince, burger, sausage, and lamb kabab mix, especially if you say all your products are vegan?

Redefine Meat: Currently, some of our products are manufactured in a facility that produces dairy products (not Redefine Meat products). Because multiple products may be manufactured in the same manufacturing facility (even if not on the same machines), they could possibly contain traces of eggs and milk. We prefer to be on the side of caution – thus the inclusion of eggs and milk in the allergen warning.

3-D printing of meat substitutes: animal cells

Several food startups use 3D-printing to create alternative meat. Some of them use animal cells.

Dutch company Mosa Meats created the first lab-grown (also called cell-cultured, cultured or cultivated) beef burger in 2013 using animal cells. Aleph Farms in Israel developed the first beef steak from animal cells in December 2018. Two years later, the American company, Good Meat, created chicken nuggets from cultured chicken cells. The company served them in Singapore, where they are approved for human consumption.

Meatable is a Dutch startup using cells extracted from cows or pigs. They create immortalized animal cell lines so manufacturers don’t need to retrieve cells from live animals each time. The company introduced cultured pork sausage in July 2022.

An Israeli startup, Steakholder Foods (formerly MeaTech 3D), reports that it makes the largest (4 oz.) lab-grown steak. Like other companies using bovine cells, they start with live animal tissue samples. The company transforms the bovine samples into a “bio-ink” that runs through a 3D printer. Later in an incubator, the original cells become the fat and muscle cells in the final alt-meat.

3D printing of meat substitutes: plant-based

A few startups create meat analogs without animal cells via 3D printing. In 2020, three students formed Legendary Vish in Austria to use 3D printing to make vegan fish. Their first prototype was salmon made from mushrooms, pea proteins, plant-based gelling agents, and plant oils. Legendary Vish is in the beginning stages of development.

Since 2018, Spain’s Novameat produces cultivated pork and beef steak with a 3D printer. Pea protein, seaweed, and beetroot juice are some of the ingredients in their products. Based on their website, this company is still in the early stages of product development.

VRG recommendations on 3D-printed alt-meat

Cell-cultivated meat technology is rapidly changing. It is difficult to keep up with it. So far, there are definitely some companies that use live animal cells. Their final products contain these animal cells that have been differentiated into fat and muscle cells. So, they are not vegan, nor are they vegetarian.

If you suspect that a company is using a method involving animal cells, make an inquiry before purchasing their product to be sure. If it’s not clear what they’re doing or what’s in the meat analog, ask for clarification. Use our questions above to Redefine Meat as templates for your own. Please let us know at [email protected] what you discover.

The contents of this posting, our website and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal and Vegan Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.