MODI’IN, ISRAEL – Using what it calls a “whole-cut texturization” platform to manufacture plant-based foods designed to imitate the taste of animal-based meat products, Alfred’s FoodTech Ltd. announced it has produced prototypes of a deli meat line as well as a chicken nugget meat alternative. The company said it differs from many other meat alternative companies by minimizing ingredients in high-protein products to produce what mimics whole-muscle tissue cuts. The startup company’s strategy is to offer its sustainable and scalable technology to other food manufacturers, including traditional meat and poultry processors, meat analog-based companies and producers of cultured meats. 

“Plant-based whole-cut products that resemble meat are the Holy Grail of the industry,” said Ronny Reinberg, chief executive officer and co-founder of Alfred’s. 

“Our tech uses only simple ingredients, such as pea protein and canola oil. Yet we can still custom-design compositions for food companies using protein sources of their choice, including cell-based ingredients,” he said. “With Alfred’s versatile technology, any food company can easily create alternative products that give consumers the exact experience of real meat and poultry.”

To prove the scalability of the technology, Alfred’s plans to first begin operating a production plant, producing low volumes of products to meet initial demand to prove the concept and then ramp up production for the mass market and demonstrate how the technology platform can be adapted to currently operating food processing plants. 

Rafin Shavit, co-owner and chief operating officer, said the launch of the business-to-business concept is designed to help accelerate other companies’ efforts to produce products that appeal to the wide variety of today’s diets.  

“We were founded with the goal of bolstering food companies and innovators within the alternative protein landscape,” Shavit said. “We see ourselves as the engine that enables companies to achieve new organoleptic heights in plant-based protein alternatives. Our mission is to elevate the plant-based experience for the growing ‘conscious eating’ consumer market, notably flexitarians aspiring to presume more plant-based lifestyles but still crave for that sensation of biting into a beefy steak.” 

Since Alfred’s was launched earlier this year it has raised $1.3 million and is about to enter its next stage of seed funding. It is one of the 12 companies selected to present its technology at the Good Food Institute’s conference during the pitch slam, scheduled for Sept. 23.