Blind tasting 3D printed alternative meat: ‘It tastes and feels like meat’
Alternative meat innovator Redefined Meat today revealed the ‘unprecedented success’ of the ‘largest-scale’ public blind tasting of plant-based products targeting meat eaters.
The taste-test was carried out in partnership with Best Meister, an Israeli high quality meat distributor through a food truck concept named ‘there’s a new meat in town’.
Blind taste puts alt. meat to the test
Redefine Meat and Best Meister set up the carnivore-branded food truck in a suburb of Tel-Aviv, targeting up to 200 tastings over two days.
The truck boasted ‘staple Mediterranean meat foods, cooked to order’. This was in fact Redefine Meat’s plant-based meat product, cooked to order.
Putting the ‘meat’ experience truly to the test, the meat was served with few condiments or extras – focusing consumer senses entirely on the protein product’s appearance, flavour and texture.
The food truck’s performance surpassed all expectations. Driven by word of mouth, over 600 visitors attended the food truck, which served close to 1,000 servings and sold out in six hours.
“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,” Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, CEO and Co-Founder of Redefine Meat commented.
When consumers were told that they were eating plant-based products and asked to rate them on metrics such as taste, texture and mouthfeel, the acceptance rate was over 90%.
“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’,” Ben-Shitrit continued.
Redefine Meat and Best Meister enter strategic partnership
Following what the company described as an ‘overwhelming response’ from the public, Redefine Meat has formed a strategic partnership with Best Meister, who will distribute the company’s 3D printed meat alternatives to high-end butchers and restaurants in Israel, beginning in the first half of 2021.
Best Meister will provide Redefine Meat the go-to-market infrastructure and reach to launch in the Israeli culinary sector.
“We’ve been excited by Redefine Meat’s unique alternative meat offering for a while, but the food truck event cemented it for us. Not only was consumer feedback overwhelmingly positive but Redefine Meat’s technology will also provide us the scale to create a wide-variety of quality meat cuts for our customers on-demand from one single source,” Ori Zaguri, Best Meister CEO, said.
“We believe the mass meat-eater market is ready for alternative meat of this quality and we are excited to be the first to deliver it to them.”
Ben-Shitrit added: “We have spent almost three years perfecting our products to ensure meat lovers never have to compromise on the experience they enjoy and love. Today, we take one step closer to making that a commercial reality.”
In July 2019, Redefine Meat unveiled the world’s first plant-based steak produced using industrial digital manufacturing of plant-based ingredients. Created using the company’s novel and patented technology, Redefine Meat aims to produce vegetable-based food with the texture, flavor and appearance of beef. The company says this can be produced in the volume and cost required for large-scale commercial markets.
Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, CEO and Co-Founder of Redefine Meat, will be joining FoodNavigator’s FREE webinar, Development and Diversification in Plant-Based Analogues, on 28 January. Register now HERE.
