First Clean-Meat Dish to Debut in Israeli Eatery in 2018

Israel-based startup Future Meat Technologies recently announced its intent to launch its first clean-meat product (meat created in a laboratory setting using a small amount of animal cells) on the menu of fine-dining restaurant Machneyuda by the end of the year. FMT founder Yaakov Nahmias explained that the company is currently working to reduce the cost of its clean beef and chicken—which currently costs $800 per kilo ($360 per pound) to produce—to $8 per kilo ($3.60 per pound) in the next six to eight months while increasing production capacity from several kilos per week to several tons. Earlier this month, FMT raised $2.2 million in venture capital—an investment round co-led by Tyson New Ventures, the venture capital arm of global meat company Tyson Foods—and will use the new funding to further reduce the price of its clean meat to approximately $2.27 to $4.55 per pound with the hopes of introducing it to other distribution channels by 2020. “I think Tyson realizes that traditional animal agriculture has really reached capacity,” Palzer told Foodnavigator, “and if we want to continue to feed more people and grow new markets, we need to start investing now in emerging technologies.” Competing companies such as Memphis Meats, SuperMeat, Aleph Farms, and Mosa Meat are similarly working to bring their iterations of clean meat to market within three years, with California-based food technology startup JUST (the maker of Just Mayo) aiming for a 2018 debut date for its clean meat product.