Meat ;-) Novameat from Barcelona, a start-up that will print your plant-based Steak

The Novameat 3D Steak (Photo: Novameat)

Novameat 

Novameat is a Barcelona based food tech startup that uses 3D printing to create plant-based meat alternatives. Novameat was founded in 2018 by Giuseppe Scionti, a bioengineering researcher and entrepreneur.

What do they do? 

Among the products they print are plant-based steaks and pork. Their plant-based steak was labelled most realistic plant-based steak by the Guardian.

How?

To print their “meat”, a plant-based paste is made from pea, seaweed and beetroot juice, which are extruded into fine fibres to recreate muscle tissue. The paste is used with syringes placed in a 3D printer using AutoCAD software

Why would they do that? 

NovaMeat’s aim is “to feed the planet’s growing population with the next generation of plant-based foods in order to overcome the challenges of today’s unsustainable and inefficient animal agriculture industry and create a healthy, efficient, humane and sustainable food supply system.”

For whom?

Right now NovaMeat is still Nova Meat is experimenting with tastes and developing pork and salmon alternatives in the future. It’s not clear yet when their products will become available for the masses. Their strategy is to team up with restaurants first and then increase their productivity. In 2021 they aim to  commission a pilot plant that will produce 50kg of steak per hour. 

Pork by Novameat (Photo: Novameat)

A 50g steak produced would currently cost around €1.25 and will even become cheaper, once production is scaled-up. If so - the company is capable of delivering a meat alternative for a more than reasonable  price. A

What is so special?

Novameat is not the first company to produce plant-based meat alternatives. Think of BeyondMeat, Mosa Meat. There are even other companies that use 3Dprinting technology to create food, like Netherlands based ByFlow For their steak alternative, the company however developed and patented a unique new micro-extrusion technology that produces fibres between 100 and 500 microns in diameter. This allows the complex structure of real meat to be replicated, with muscle fibres and fat entwined. 

Investments

NovaMeat is backed up by New Crop Capital, a private venture fund that has previously also invested in Beyond Meat, Memphis Meats, SuperMeat, Mosa Meat, Good Catch, Kite Hill and Zero Egg