Steakholder Foods awarded $1M grant to 3D print structured eel

Steakholder Foods, previously known as Meatech, an international deep-tech food company at the forefront of the cultivated meat industry, has received its first grant, up to the value of $1 million, to develop 3D printed structured eel and grouper products with Singaporean cultivated fish and seafood company Umami Meats. The initiative is being funded by a grant from the Singapore Israel Industrial R&D Foundation (SIIRD), a cooperation between Enterprise Singapore (ESG) and the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA).

Steakholder Foods’ partnership with Umami Meats, in which the first memorandum of understanding was signed in July 2022, offers a unique opportunity for market entry in the only country in the world where cultivated meat has regulatory approval. The collaboration aims to develop a scalable process for producing structured cultivated fish products. Steakholder Foods will use its newly-developed technology for mimicking the flaky texture of cooked fish that was recently submitted for a provisional patent application.

The project’s first prototype, a structured hybrid grouper product, is expected to be completed by Q1 2023, and will be printed using Steakholder Foods’ proprietary 3D bio-printing technology and bio-inks that will be customized for Umami Meats’ cells.

“Industry collaborations are a critical aspect of our long-term business strategy. Our partnership with Umami Meats is especially meaningful following our recent patent application for fish texture and because it is being supported by a joint Israeli/Singaporean government initiative of which we are very proud to be a part,” said Yair Ayalon, VP of Business Development at Steakholder Foods.

“We are thrilled to be combining our deep knowledge and experience in cultivated seafood with Steakholder Foods’ innovative 3D bio-printing technology. We believe this partnership will help us advance our vision of a new, more sustainable food system for preserving our marine ecosystems while delivering exceptional, high-quality seafood to meet growing consumer demand,” said Mihir Pershad, CEO and Founder of Umami Meats.

“Looking ahead to 2023, the company is upgrading its industrial-scale 3D bio-printer, pushing forward with the biology department development for our in-house growth media and cell proliferation across species, accelerating business development and marketing activities. On the regulation front, I am extremely pleased with the recent progress that the FDA and USDA have made with cultivated meat approvals, culminating so far in Upside Foods’ “no questions” letter from the FDA. The team at Steakholder Foods is pushing forward to submit products for approval in Singapore, the USA, and Europe in 2023,” said Arik Kaufman, CEO of Steakholder Foods in his letter highlighting the company’s main achievements of 2022 and the accelerated go-to-market strategy for 2023.