Israeli lab beef company Aleph Farms Ltd. is aiming to develop lab-grown steaks within the next five years, according to its CEO, Didier Toubia.
“Already today, our product is very similar to what we are aiming at,” he told the Israeli financial-news site Calcalist.
Aleph Farms, created in 2017, grows a variety of beef cells such as fat, muscle and blood-vessel cells to “recreate in the lab the structure and feel of a conventional cut of meat. The company was founded by food-tech incubator The Kitchen, a part of the Israeli food processing company the Strauss Group Ltd., in collaboration with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology,” reported the outlet.
Aleph Farms produces the cells in biological “farms,” utilizing a prcoess that Toubia said is similar to how yogurt is made.
The steaks made will be absolutely sustainable, said Toubia, in order to meet the demand of the world’s growing population.
“The idea to lab-grow edible animal parts is not new, but up until a few years ago, it was science fiction,” he said.
Aleph Farms revealed in December a minute steak produced from single cells—the world’s first, per the company.