3D-Printed Vegan Steak Proves It’s as Good as the Real Thing in Blind Taste-Test

With products that have a 95 percent smaller environmental impact than conventional meat, it’s safe to say that Redefine Meat is living up to its namesake with its proprietary 3D-printed meat products. So much so, in fact, that it’s redefining meat even for an audience of primarily omnivore consumers.

From a “carnivore-branded” food truck in Kidron, Israel, earlier this month, Redefine Meat, in partnership with upscale Israeli meat distributor, Best Meister, doled out Alt-Meats products with minimal or no condiment, to let the meat speak for itself and see how it stacked up to animal-based versions, as a company press release shared of their little experiment.

Alt-Meats are made of a proprietary blend of soy, pea protein, coconut fat, sunflower oil, and natural colors and flavors to imitate the real deal. And clearly, it’s a pretty convincing imitator: The “carnivore-targeted blind tasting” was a raging success with 90 percent of visitors saying that the meat products were comparable to animal products in taste, texture, mouthfeel, and more.

Even event organizers didn’t think word-of-mouth would travel so fast and the so-called “There’s a new meat in town” food truck would be such a home run with the products selling out in less than five hours with 600 visitors buying nearly 1,000 Alt-Meats dishes. To round out the feel-good, meat-free vibes, all revenue from the food truck stint was donated to support local restaurants struggling in the midsts of the coronavirus pandemic.

"We believe Alt-Meat should taste as good as animal meat —  simple as that. Redefine Meat has achieved that with every product it has put to the test, transitioning the Alt-Meat conversation from health and sustainability and the view that 'this is really close' to 'wow this meat is super delicious,’” said Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, CEO of Redefine Meat, of the brand he co-founded in 2018, in the same media statement.

“The incredible results of the food truck exemplify this. We initially only expected 100 visitors a day, as the event was held in a small village due to COVID-19 restrictions. But through word of mouth, we ended up receiving over 600 customers in one day  — with queues as long as 50 minutes. What this has shown is that meat lovers can enjoy our alternative meat because it tastes and feels like meat — not solely because it is better for the environment or animals,” he added. Working with Best Meister, Redefine Meat plans to begin wide-scale distribution of their Alt-Meats in Israel this year.

As we reported last summer, Redefine Meat wants its products to be available globally in supermarkets by 2022. We’ll be patiently waiting for this plant-based revolution.