The launch of its plant-based steak into European retailers is ‘just the beginning’ for Israeli food tech firm Redefine Meat, CEO and co-founder Eshchar Ben-Shitrit told FoodNavigator Europe, in an interview earlier this month.
From July, the start-up’s flagship steak became available in the UK via online-only retailer Ocado and in Switzerland via Coop. This is soon set to be followed by the Netherlands via Jumbo, Albert Heijn and Crisp.
Already available via foodservice across nine countries, the launches mark the first time that the flank steak has been made available direct to European consumers. It joins Redefine’s existing retail range, which includes pulled pork, pulled beef, bratwurst, lamb kofta mix, burger and beef mince.
And though “it’s too soon to tell” exactly how the latest product will be received by shoppers, Ben-Shitrit says “the fact that we are in retail as a new brand and adding more products to the range, with good consumer data and repeat purchases, shows that we have a partnership with retailers. This launch is just the beginning.”
It’s existing products, which hit shelves in November 2023, are “rating very high in comparison to the rest of the [plant-based] category,” he adds. At Ocado, “our burger is the top-rated burger in the category and our lamb kofta is also rated highly. [Ocado] are open on consumer trend data and we know from them that a lot of people buying Redefine Meat are trying plant-based meat for the first time.
“We’re also seeing a repeat purchase pattern which is the ultimate goal,” he adds, and shows that “that people are not just excited about a new product” but want to incorporate it regularly in their diet.
That even includes senior retail leaders themselves. “My biggest proof point for that is that I know that senior leaders in Ocado take Redefine Meat products home to cook,” he smiles.
A huge challenge
Redefine Meat unveiled the first iteration of its plant-based flank steak in 2020, with the company having been established by Ben-Shitrit and co-founder Adam Lahav two years prior as a way to apply the latest advances in 3D printing technologies to the alt-protein space. The approach was billed as a way to replicate the structure and fibrous texture of whole cuts of meat more closely.
The company has evolved its approach in the four years since, however, and now uses what it calls a patented additive manufacturing process that has allowed it to achieve the scale of production necessary for retail distribution.
It’s no longer enough for a company such as theirs to market purely off the back of these novel processes anyway, believes Ben-Shitrit.
On the one hand, consumers have grown used to the level of sophistication in alt-proteins and how closely they imitate meat. “Five years ago, there was a trend of [meat alternative] products that consumers ate, and they said, ‘wow I can't believe this is not meat,’ he says. “It was a real experience. But now that’s over and people have already had that experience. Now it’s about moving them from trying something once to incorporating it in their diets a few times per week.”
Achieving that higher repeat purchase rate has been made more challenging for the sector by a growing pushback in Europe against meat alternatives that they class as ultra-processed foods (UPFs).
According to recent research hub the EIT Food Consumer Observatory, which surveyed nearly 10,000 people across 17 European countries, 54% say they’re deterred from adding products like plant-based burgers, sausages and mince to supermarket trollies amid concerns they could be classed as UPFs.
Expectations are changing, agrees Ben-Shitrit. “When people want to incorporate something in their diet, the product attributes are more important than they once were,” he says. “They need to be super tasty and resemble meat, but they also need to be versatile and healthy. That’s a huge challenge.”
Redefine Meat takes a portfolio approach to the problem, he explains. Its pulled meat products, for example, don’t aim to so closely mimic meat but “they’re very tasty, very convenience to cook and also minimally processed and very healthy.” Others, such as its flank steak, undergo greater technological processing to achieve the finished product but deliver an experience far closer to meat. Healthiness and technological processing aren’t at odds with one another either, he believes. For example, “we also think that technology in the sense of processing can improve nutritional composition and digestibility.”
“We have to be honest, we are a technology company,” he points out. “We take plant-based proteins, and we make them into a steak. We will never hide behind the idea that we're not processed, that we take proteins and magically turn them into steaks. But our processes are transparent.”
Ultimately, “there's a lot of needs from the consumers, but you cannot answer those needs if you don't have technology.”
New categories to disrupt
Of course, there is also speculation that plant-based has reached a plateau. A dwindling number of European consumers now say they identify as flexitarian, according to research by HealthFerm, for example, while there have been well-documented struggles at major operators like Beyond Meat.
Does that concern Ben-Shitrit at all?
“The real question is not how you grow the demand for plant-based meat, but how you find the category in meat that is ready for disruption with the right product,” he says. Some alt-meat categories, such as plant-based burgers, are saturated, he believes, but the demand is still there – and growing - for those manufacturers that can offer a more diverse range of alt-meat options.
For Redefine Meat, in particular, the target market isn’t those following a plant-based diet, he explains, but rather meat-eaters looking to reduce their consumption. As a result, “our main focus as a company is to maintain product improvement while scaling,” he says. “That isn’t easy but our number one focus is to make our products more tasty and meatier still. Until we capture 10% of the meat market, our product needs to become meatier.”
If taste and texture is its number one priority though, nutrition is a close second. “Increasing nutrition is much more of a priority than reducing cost,” he says. That includes scrutinising its protein composition and quality. “We’ve worked to include multiple parts of the protein sources, so you have the complete amino acid profile and we’re also carrying out a three-year research project to understand how much your body absorbs from the protein.”
Ben-Shitrit is clear on the scale of his ambition for the company in the next few years.
“We want to be the world's largest meat company,” he says. “We want to take people that eat meat today and offer them the same meat, the same performance they want from it, just made in a different way.”
