How to 3D Print the Perfect Meatless Steak

Redefine Meat is building a 3D printer that it says will produce a meatless steak that’s so fatty, juicy, and perfectly meaty that even the most dedicated carnivore won’t know the difference. “All meat alternatives today are basically a meat-homogeneous mass,” says Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, Redefine Meat’s chief executive officer. “If you 3D-print it, you can control what’s happening inside the mass to improve the texture and to improve the flavor.”

Startups such as Redefine Meat and their backers say that 3D printing promises to give diners the same sensory experience as eating a real T-bone or rump roast. The technology involves developing a design that can then be printed countless times. First, proprietary computer software creates a detailed model of a steak, including the muscle, fat, and blood, based on whichever cut it’s emulating. That blueprint is then transmitted to a printer loaded with plant-based “inks.” Hit the start button and out comes a “steak.”

Alternative meat is enjoying a boom as climate change and health concerns drive consumers to products such as those made by Beyond Meat Inc. and Impossible Foods Inc. While ground-meat replacements are widely available, mimicking an actual cut of meat has proved far more challenging. That’s because replicating the mouthfeel and visual appeal of a juicy sirloin is a lot tougher than cranking out something that’s going to be slapped between a bun. Says Giuseppe Scionti, founder of Novameat Tech SL, a Spanish company developing a 3D-printed steak: “A beefsteak is the holy grail of plant-based meat.“

The faux-meat category has already reached an estimated $14 billion in annual sales worldwide, according to Barclays Plc, and will grow to $140 billion in 2029. The sausages and patties now on the market are much easier to make, since all the ingredients are mixed up into a ground mash and then squeezed out into the format of choice. “We have a lot of burgers in the market—many, many burgers,” says Dan Altschuler Malek, managing partner at Unovis Partners, which manages New Crop Capital, a venture fund that invests in alternative protein businesses. “When will fillet come about? When will sirloin come about? Consumers will want to have a choice.”

Engineering a realistic texture is crucial. It goes beyond flavor and affects attributes like mouthfeel, chewiness, and the sensation of multiple tastes in a single bite. That means engineers face the difficult task of precisely re-creating layers of thin muscle fibers and fat.

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