Metamaterials to improve the properties of meat substitutes

Producing edible meat substitutes, thus avoiding using animals, is an ambitious objective to advance better use of the planet’s natural resources in the face of the increase in the human population.

Killing animals to eat their meat has historically been an essential human activity. Hunting (including fishing) and livestock supply humanity with meat. However, the natural resources necessary to raise immense quantities of farm animals are finite and increasingly close to being insufficient. At the same time, scruples of conscience grow about having to survive by killing intelligent animals.

Vegetarian or vegan diets are a way to ensure a sustainable diet for all of humanity without regrets about the animals eaten, but the ideal is to also have meat substitutes that imitate it perfectly. Unfortunately, there are still many challenges to overcome in this regard. One of them is to ensure that the fake meat has the same textures as the various types of the real one.

A promising advance in this regard is that recently achieved by a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, including, among others, Mohammad Ghosheh and Yaakov Nahmias.

This team has for the first time used metamaterials to create whole pieces of meat.

Metamaterials are composite materials whose properties are derived from their structure and not their composition. Adopting principles typically used in the aerospace industry, the team developed meat analogues that mimic the intricate architecture of muscle tissue and fat, typical components of meat. These meat analogs are manufactured using injection molding, a high-capacity manufacturing process borrowed from the polymer industry, marking the first time this technology has been applied to the production of meat substitutes.

The innovation is based on two new metamaterials: a low temperature meat analogue (LTMA) that reproduces the fibrous texture of muscle tissue, and proteoleogel (PtoG), an oleogel stabilized with plant proteins that emulates the structural integrity and behavior cooking of animal fat. Together, these materials make it possible to create complex pieces of meat, such as steaks, chops and ribeyes, with remarkable precision and sensory fidelity.

The use of metamaterials to make substitutes for different types of meat can be a decisive step towards widespread consumption of such substitutes. (Image: Hebrew University)

The potential implications of this new technology go beyond culinary innovation. Unlike current methods of 3D printing meat analogs, which are slow and expensive, injection molding offers a transformative leap in economic cost and industrial-scale production capacity. Produced in large quantities with the new method, the product costs only $9 per kilogram, almost a quarter of the cost of making meat substitutes using 3D printing. Innovation will make these substitutes affordable for a wider audience.

Blind taste tests conducted as part of the study revealed the sensory appeal of these products, as participants were unable to distinguish between the ersatz steak and traditional steak. This milestone represents a big step forward in consumer acceptance of sustainable alternatives to foods with animal protein, especially in the case of whole pieces of meat, which represent more than half of global meat consumption.

Ghosheh, Nahmias and their colleagues present the technical details of their innovation in the academic journal Nature Communications, under the title “Metamaterial-based injection molding for the cost-effective production of whole cuts.” (Fountain: NCYT by Amazings)