Innovation Plant-based meat market attracting 3D printing firms

Meat alternatives are increasingly becoming mainstream and 3D printing businesses, such as Israel's Redefine Meat and Spain's Novameat, believe their technology can help improve plant-based products and speed up the manufacturing process. Such potential has seen both Redefine Meat and Novameat attract the backing of investors recently.

At the moment, most plant-based meat businesses use extruders to make their products, which generally do not allow them to create fibrous or 'muscle-cut' meat substitutes. It also means they are often reliant on ingredients that may be seen as unhealthy such as soy and wheat gluten. The 3D printing businesses say that, by using their technology, the plant-based industry will be able to ditch these ingredients and use more fibrous options such as pea protein and rice protein.

Andy Coyne, Food Correspondent at GlobalData, says: “ What these companies have now worked out is that their technology can help plant-based food manufacturers to make a better product. This is a more practical and possibly faster-to-market use for the equipment.”