Based out of Barcelona, NOVAMEAT‘s proprietary technologies allow producing plant-based meat substitutes with the same texture, appearance, taste, and nutritional properties. Recently, the Spanish company has revealed the latest version of its whole muscle beef steak.
The plant-based steak includes ingredients such as seaweed, pea, and beetroot juice, which are extruded into fine fibers to recreate muscle tissue. According to the company, the steak will be available in some restaurants in Spain and Italy this year.
Giuseppe Scionti, founder of NOVAMEAT:
I started with steak, I think, because it is the holy grail of plant-based meat. It is the most difficult.
He also said that the new steak has much needed fibrous texture and meaty appearance when compared to real steak. However, the company is experimenting with the taste and expects the final formulation in the next few months.
It’s worth mentioning that the upgraded steak is made up of patented micro-extrusion technology that produces fibers somewhere between 100 to 500 microns in diameter, allowing them to replicate the complex structure of real meat.
Furthermore, the production of 50grams of steak costs around $1.50 (approx €1.35). However, Scionti said that the price would drop once they hit large scale production. Also, the company is planning to start a pilot plant in 2021 that can produce 50kg of steak per hour.
In the upcoming days, Scionti said beneficial ingredients such as omega-3 fatty acids could be added. The founder and CEO were recently named as one of the ’Nine Innovators to watch in 2019′ by Smithsonian Magazine.
NOVAMEAT develops cutting-edge technological solutions to feed the planet’s growing population with plant-based foods in order to overcome the challenges of today’s unsustainable and inefficient animal agriculture industry. The Spanish company NOVAMEAT is not alone in this field, making plant-based steak. There is Israel-based Redefine Meat, Atlast Food, Emergy Foods, Aleph Farms, and much more.
Main image credits: NOVAMEAT
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