Steakholder Foods develops temperature-controlled print bed

Steakholder Foods Ltd. (Nasdaq: STKH), (formerly MeaTech 3D: MITC), an international deep-tech food company at the forefront of the cultivated meat industry, developed a temperature-controlled print bed for its industrial-scale printer. This is another significant step forward on the company’s path toward mass production of cultivated meat using 3D printing technology.

Arik Kaufman, CEO of Steakholder Foods: “We are proud to have reached this important milestone with our technology. It is a critical step toward producing structured cultivated meat at scale.”

After an initial boom driving investor enthusiasm, many food tech companies are now having to face the challenges of cost-effectively scaling their production capabilities both in terms of material manufacturing (cellular cultures) and manufacturing processes (bioprinting).

In Steakholder Food technology, the bioink is formulated from carefully selected cell lines and unique scaffolding materials. The bioink is then loaded into a 3D printer which then, in just a matter of minutes, prints a whole cut of meat with pinpoint precision based on a digital design. The printed product is incubated for several weeks to allow the stem cells to differentiate into muscle and fat cells and for muscle fibers to form with the right density, thickness and length to become a cut of meat that can be cooked to perfection!

Temperature control is a critical requirement when printing a cultivated product containing live cells. Maintaining optimal temperature poses a challenge in the architecture of Steakholder Foods’ industrial printers, so the development of temperature-controlled print beds is a major milestone on the path to production at scale. Contactless electromagnetic power is delivered to the print bed which is connected to a wireless communication module that monitors and controls its temperature.