Aleph Farms granted world’s first regulatory approval for cultivated beef

Loads of stories unfolding this week, especially out of Israel, with one in particular standing out due to its historic significance.

We were thrilled that, following a rigorous review process by Israel’s Ministry of Health (MoH), the government agency issued regulatory approval for the world’s first cultivated beef steaks. That green light was the first ever for non-chicken cultivated meat anywhere in the world, and the first for cultivated meat of any kind in the Middle East! Just to think, one day such breakthroughs will be so common, they might not even make the news.

Remaining in Israel, we were equally happy to see a friend of ours unveil his company’s first prototype of cell-cultivated freshwater eel, successfully replicating the traditional Japanese unagi eel (Anguilla japonica) featuring the same tender, succulent texture and rich savory flavor as real eel.

And another Israeli food-tech has announced it has acquired and is operating its own industrial-scale precision fermentation production lines, focused on the production of dairy ingredients. This puts the company in a position to offer animal-free products at cost parity to traditional dairy!

Meanwhile, in Austria, another startup has presented, for the first time, a new 3D food printing process for industrial applications. Using a high-precision extrusion system, different ingredients can be combined with each other in any predefined structure, enabling the production of previously 'impossible' products.

If the first three weeks of January are indicative of how the rest of 2024 will pan out, we’re in for exciting times! Speaking of excitement, the Super Early Bird sale for tickets to The Future of Protein Production Chicago ends this Friday (26 January) and there’s under 40 of the initial 100 left. Once they’re gone, they’re gone, so make sure you get yours today and save +US$500 to join us at McCormick Place in Chicago on 24/25 April 2024. Get yours now here!

Read on to find out who made this week’s Top 4… and more…!

• Forsea unveils first cultured eel in collaboration with Japanese restaurant SAIDO

• Imagindairy unveils industrial-scale manufacturing of its milk protein in newly owned 100,000 liter production lines

• Aleph Farms granted world’s first regulatory approval for cultivated beef

• Austrian food-tech startup Revo Foods presents the 'Food Fabricator X2', the world's first industrial production-method for 3D-printed foods