by AP and Israel Hayom Staff
Israel the "Silicon Valley " of cultured meat technologies, says Alex Shirazi, co-founder of the Cultured Meat and Future Food podcast.
Chef Amir Ilan prepares a lab-grown steak during a presentation
by the Israeli company Aleph Farms, in Jaffa in January
Photo: AP
Several
Israeli start-ups have joined a handful of companies around the globe
trying to develop lab-grown meat, something they see as a solution to
the needs of the world's ever-growing population and burgeoning demand
for food.
The product has been known under different
names, including cultured meat, in-vitro or artificial and "clean meat" –
a term advocates say underscores its environment-friendly nature. It's
basically made of animal muscle cells grown in a culture in a lab, a
technology similar to stem cells.
And while "synthetic steaks" are perhaps
not a candidate for everyone's favorite dish, they could someday compete
with conventional chicken or beef, an affordable price tag permitting.
"Producing meat is very inefficient," said
Yaakov Nahmias, a bioengineering professor at Hebrew University and
founder of Future Meat Technologies. Cultured meat, by comparison,
consumes "10 times less water, less land, less energy than the current
meat production."
Advocates say lab-grown meat is flavorful
and better for the environment than conventional meat. They say it
consumes less water, energy and land, produces less greenhouse gases and
reduces animal suffering.
Agriculture is estimated to generate around
13% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with livestock alone
responsible for two-thirds of those emissions, according to the United
Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.
For Israel, the advances are a far cry from the country's early decades, when meat was rationed.
In fact, Israel is quickly becoming "the
leader in the space, or [is] side-by-side with Silicon Valley" in
cultured meat technologies, said Alex Shirazi, co-founder of the
Cultured Meat and Future Food podcast and a founder of the Cultured Meat
Symposium, an industry gathering in San Francisco in November.
Israel has a thriving high-tech scene, so
the pursuit of lab-grown meat was a natural avenue for its
entrepreneurs, experts say. The government's Innovation Authority has
also sought to stimulate food-technology companies through grants and
the financing of a $25 million food-tech incubator.
Israel currently imports much of its meat and the government is invested in creating food security.
For observant Jews, several prominent
Orthodox rabbis have already expressed approval for lab-grown meat being
kosher. Because it doesn't come from a slaughtered animal, some rabbis
have even said cultured meat could be consumed as a cheeseburger – a
food that combines meat and dairy, which would otherwise be forbidden
under Jewish law.
In February, the Good Food Institute, a
Washington-based non-profit promoting the development of meat
alternatives, announced a series of research grants "for the benefit of
the entire scientific community and good food industry."
One of the six $250,000 grants for "clean
meat" researchers went to Israel, and a second Israeli researcher
received funds for "plant-based" meat alternatives.
"Israel is a fertile ground for tech in
general and specifically for what we call alternative protein," said
Beni Nofech, a board member at the institute. "Israel is such an
innovation-driven economy and infrastructure, both governmental and
private, is already in place to actually catalyze innovation and
research."
The industry still faces some significant
hurdles, including astronomical cost, developmental challenges,
regulatory issues and questions about whether people are ready to eat
lab-grown meat.
Until now, most companies involved in the effort have only managed to produce fleshy granules.
Future Meat Technologies, a company based
out of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, and SuperMeat are among those
combining animal cells and plant proteins as a potential alternative to
processed meats.
Aleph Farms, an Israeli start-up launched
in 2017, announced in December it succeeded in producing a lab-grown
"minute steak" made from bovine cells that closely resembles the texture
and flavor of its cow-borne counterpart.
For now, the tiny steaks are just 3 millimeters [a tenth of an inch] wide – roughly the size of a very thin strip of roast beef.
Each Israeli player has raised several
million dollars in early investment, including from major food
manufacturers such as U.S. giant Tyson Foods, Germany's PHW Group, and
Israel's Strauss Group.
The first lab-grown burger was made by a
Dutch company in 2013 at a cost of over $300,000. Production costs have
fallen in the years since. Last year, U.S.-based Memphis Meats' ground
beef alternative was reported to cost about $2,400 per pound. Each slice
of Aleph Farms' "steak" costs about $50 to produce.
Before it can hit the shelves, lab-grown
meat will face regulatory obstacles. The U.S. government's FDA and USDA
announced in November they would "jointly oversee the production of
cell-cultured food products derived from livestock and poultry."
Cultured meat has already faced resistance
from the U.S. meat industry and will probably face a label battle once
it comes on the market.
Even if the industry can overcome these
obstacles, the technology necessary to make these synthetic sirloins
commercially viable remains years away.
Max Elder, a food researcher at the San
Francisco-based Institute for the Future, says the biggest challenge may
be convincing consumers to eat a steak essentially grown in a petri
dish.
Nonetheless, researchers and
environmentalists agree the need for sustainable, lab-grown alternatives
to industrial farming is essential.
"If we want to make sure that our kids eat
the same thing that we eat today, then we need to dramatically change
the way we manufacture it," said Nahmias, the Hebrew University
professor.
AP and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2019/02/25/israeli-startups-join-firms-making-lab-grown-clean-meat/
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