Israeli food technology company SavorEat on Tuesday launched a custom plant-based burger system for each customer, one of the first companies to use 3D printing technology to cook food.
Vegan burgers from firms like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are typically frozen and later cooked on a grill. However, those from SavorEat are made on-site using a self-contained 3D printer with three cartridges containing oils and other ingredients. Customers can choose the amount of fat and protein they want in each burger, which takes about six minutes to cook.
“It’s a blend of meat alternative and digital fabrication innovation where we can also cook the product,” Racheli Vizman, SavorEat CEO, told Reuters. He also indicated that his hamburgers are made with a combination of potatoes and chickpea and pea proteins.
Demand for meat alternatives by health and environmentally conscious consumers has exploded in recent years, while alternative protein startups raised more than $ 3 billion in 2020.
Another Israeli company, Redefine Meat, began marketing whole cuts without meat in European restaurants last month.
SavorEat, funded mostly by Israeli institutions and whose Tel Aviv-listed shares rose 11% on Tuesday, said its products will initially be served at a local hamburger chain.
The company is also collaborating with food services firm Yarzin Sela, which supplies Israeli high-tech companies, and has forged an agreement with Sodexo to serve its vegan burgers at American universities.
