On the top floor of a modern tower in Rehovot, a city 30 kilometers south of Tel Aviv, Didier Toubia, the boss of Aleph Farms, presents the visitor with this product of which he is so proud and which looks like it mistaken for a thin strip of vacuum-packed beef. Except that it is not strictly speaking meat, but a food from cell culture.
Like many Israeli start-ups, the Aleph Farms start-up stems from research done at the Technion, a world-renowned technology institute, which, in Haifa, is a city within a city.
In one of its many laboratories, we continue to work to perfect this power supply of the future, and in particular to allow the production of thicker parts thanks to 3D printing. A sign of the Technion’s strong interest in food issues, an innovation center dedicated to FoodTech is due to open there in 2025.
Ecological imperatives
Without waiting for future research developments, Aleph Farms intends to start production as soon as possible. In its premises in Rehovot, it already has a demonstrator to refine its production processes and it plans to open factories in Israel and Singapore by 2025 to produce tens of tonnes of this food per year. . This, even though the green light from the international health authorities is still awaited.
Didier Toubia − met during an immersion in the Israeli technological ecosystem (organized by the Raoul agency) for French journalists − has no doubt that the solution developed by his company will impose itself with regard to ecological imperatives. Its “meat” – the word is carefully avoided by the company – would generate 78% less CO emissions2and would reduce dependence on foreign countries where livestock farming is not developed, such as Israel, which imports 90% of its beef.
The company is already interested in new fields of action such as collagens for food or cosmetics. But she also knows that she will have to be patient to impose a product that is out of the ordinary: “It took Tesla fifteen years to take 10% market share”indicates Mr. Toubia who hopes to succeed in operating the same revolution.
In a report produced at the beginning of the year, the organization Start-Up National Center – at the heart of the Israeli tech ecosystem – lists 637 start-ups dedicated to agriculture and food, of which the vast majority (90 %) is less than 5 years old. “There is undeniably a boom”, believes Alon Turkaspa, specialist in these themes within the organization. These companies include some looking for alternative protein sources, others wanting to create new food categories or looking at packaging. For its part, AKA Foods is working to develop artificial intelligence to accelerate the production of plant products that mimic the taste and consistency of meat foods.
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