You Will Soon Be Able To Taste a Lab-Grown Ribeye Steak

The Israeli company Aleph Farms has just unveiled its lab-grown bio-printed slaughter-free fat-marbled ribeye steak. The steak is grown from living cow cells and then incubated to grow, differentiate, and interact in order to acquire the texture and qualities of a real steak. The company claims that it has “the ability to produce any type of steak and plans to expand its portfolio of quality meat products.” In The Washington Post, Aleph’s chief executive Didier Toubia said that the company plans to begin selling its meats in the second half of 2022. He said that the lab-grown meats would initially be sold as a premium product, but predicted that in five years cultured meats would cost the same as conventional meats.

Aleph’s news follows upon San Francisco-based Just Eat, Inc.’s announcement in December that its cultured chicken nuggets have been approved by Singapore’s food safety agency and are already being sold in restaurants. Numerous other startups are pursuing the production of cultured meats including Israel-based Future Meat Technologies and Dutch companies Meatable and Mosa Meat, and U.S.-based Memphis Meats.

These cultured meat companies face stiff competition from the burgeoning plant-based meat companies, including the delicious Impossible Burger from Impossible Foods.

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