Celebrity chef Marco Pierre White will sell 3D-printed vegan fake steaks in his UK restaurants for £20 to £30.
Redefine Meat is an Israeli company that uses 3D printing technology to recreate the flavor of lamb and beef. The 59 year-old will stock up on plant-based products.
The process, which is combined with artificial intelligence, aims to create steaks that look like the muscles of an animal.
Products made with soy protein, pea protein, chickpeas, coconut fat and beetroot will be sold at 23 steakhouses in London and three London restaurants.
Marco Pierre White (pictured), 59, plans to stock up on plant-based products from Israeli firm Redefine Meat, which uses 3D-printing technology to replicate the taste of beef and lamb
This process works in conjunction with artificial intelligence to make steaks that are similar to the muscle of an animal.
The Telegraph quoted Mr White as saying that Redefine Meat first struck his fancy.
“The world should eat less meat. However, the fact is that till now plant-based meat products have not met the requirements for quality and versatility.
The vegan steaks will be sold for around £20 to £30, falling within the same range as the restaurant’s £28.95 fillet steak, £26.50 sirloin steak and £28.50 ribeye steak.
Redefine Meat announced its first 3D-printed vegan beef steak in June 2020. It stated that it planned to roll it out in European restaurants and supermarkets by 2022.
Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, the company’s CEO and co-founder, previously told The Media Line: ‘This is the world’s first 3D-printed steak that can really pass the test of what is a steak.
‘We’ve reached a milestone because we can print steaks on a large scale and the taste and texture are amazing.
Products made with soy protein, beetroots, chickpeas, coconut fat and beetroot will be sold at 23 London restaurants and in three London eateries
“Until now nobody had such a printer, and it was developed in the past two year.”
This follows Giuseppe Scionti, a Milan-based researcher who produced 3D-printed meats and poultry in 2018. He used protein powders from rice and peas as well as components of seaweed.
Scionti used CAD software to create a program that would turn food products which were inserted using a needle into a machine into long microfilaments which can then be shaped into steaks.
According to him, chefs are ‘interested by something that looks and tastes like steak but is deliciously mushroom-flavored’.
MailOnline was previously informed by the scientist that they had eaten them together with several journalists. They thought that their plant-based versions had a texture similar to animal meat.
The taste of the prototypes was good but not as delicious as the animal-meat taste.
“However that doesn’t worry me because technologies to mimic the flavor of animal meat were already developed over the past years. The main challenge was for me to achieve the consistency and texture of animal meat, which is still not possible.
“There’s a lot of demand in America for hamburgers, but we prefer eating real meats from the Mediterranean, not products made with minced meat.”
Earlier this year, Israeli company Aleph Farms also revealed a 3D-bioprinted ribeye made with real cow cells, saying it is completely cruelty and slaughter-free.
According to the company, cell harvesting is not more difficult or painful than when a person does a cheek swab.
Although cows are not killed when they give their cells for the processing, it is still real meat.
Aleph stated that lab-grown meat has the same flavor and texture as authentic ribeye purchased from a butcher.
Didier Toubia, CEO of the company, stated at that time: “We recognize some consumers will desire thicker and more fattier cuts 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.’
A food technician tests a cooked 3D-printed plant-based steak which mimics real beef and is produced by Redefine Meat at their facility in Rehovot, Israel
A chef cuts a 3D-printed plant-based steak mimicking beef as part of an event marking the company’s launch of its New-Meat product range at a restaurant in Tel Aviv, Israel