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Business I FoodTech

“Creating vegan steak that tastes like the real deal is no easy task” The Israeli FoodTech start-up Redefine Meat has harnessed its acute technological expertise to create a whole new kind of meat that renowned international chefs and families across the country and abroad, have welcomed with glee. Their 100% plant based burgers and steaks are leading a meat revolution even non-vegans will want to join \ By Sharon Ben-David

Redefine Meat was founded in 2018 by old friends and high-tech entrepreneurs Eshchar Ben-Shitrit and Adam Lahav after the birth of Ben-Shitrit’s first son, a turning point in terms of the young father’s appreciation of the connection between what we eat and where it comes form. Though born to a family of dairy farmers, Ben-Shitrit resolved to ditch meat altogether and began looking into what vegan meat substitutes were available on the market. “We immediately realized there was a lack of good plant-based meat for anything other than burgers”, explain the two co-founders, discerning the need to implement multi-disciplinary technology, which according to them “Israel is very good at”. Creating a meat-eating experience It took three years to land a finished product on the market and dozens of experts from across the globe specializing in a whole range of domains to crack the plant-based meat enigma. Though existing technology could produce plant based ground meat, vegan steak seemed impossible to achieve. “The fats and liquids of a cut of meat have the particularity of being unevenly

Photo: Asaf Karela

The Redefine Meat tenderloin dish at Chef Haim Cohen’s restaurant “Yafo-Tel Aviv”

distributed, which is what makes creating a plant-based imitation nigh on impossible. We decided we weren’t going to try and imitate a cut of meat but rather to understand the structure and characteristics of the meat-eating experience and replicate it”. In 2021, backed by leading tech investors, and barely a year after its initial launch, Redefine Meat began its journey as the only company producing soy and pea protein-based meat that replicates to perfection the structure of an actual cut of meat. Its rise has been no less

than meteoric, as in a year’s time it has gone from a start-up with 40 employees, to a powerhouse of 200+. Its portfolio of products has it too grown exponentially, currently counting thirteen items, including plant-based beef, pork, lamb, ground meat, and more. Redefine Meat is the first company in the world to have created 100% vegan flank steak and pulled meat. A few weeks ago, vegan tenderloin, low in fat and high in protein, was added to the list of products as well. Israeli chef Haim Cohen’s restaurant was chosen as the tenderloin’s launch venue, where the

34 ATMOSPHERE FEBRUARY 2023