50 Influential Jews: The Food Tech Pioneers - No. 41
Israel has become a major player in the food tech sector, and these three companies and their leaders are at the forefront of innovation in the field.
Arik Kaufman, CEO, Steakholder Foods; Dr. Yishai Mishor, CEO, Meat. The End; Aviv Wolff, CEO, Remilk
The individuals selected for No. 41 embody the forefront of Israel’s food technology landscape. Each of these visionary CEOs leads a company that has developed innovative products poised to revolutionize food preparation methods and redefine our culinary choices.
Steakholder Foods
Steakholder Foods made headlines this year when it partnered with Singapore-based Umami Meats to produce the world’s first 3D-printed cut of grouper. In an interview with CNN, Umami Meats CEO Mihir Pershad described cultivated seafood as flaking, tasting, and melting in your mouth like fish should. The cultivated fish is grown in a lab using stem cells.
Meat. The End
Meat. The End (MTE) developed the world’s first meat analog out of chickpea protein, which it announced in April. The company creates AI-based technological solutions that enhance the texture properties of alternative protein products. According to CEO Dr. Yishai Mishor, the chickpea protein “behaves exactly like meat.” In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Mishor said, “The ‘meat’ is frozen. You take it out of the freezer, put it on a pan, in the oven or even on the grill, and it cooks just like meat. The fat kind of trickles down. It takes about the same time to cook. And, in the end, when you eat it, what you are putting in your mouth is something that has the same texture as meat - the juiciness, the firmness you would expect to have when you bite into a real meat burger.”
Remilk
Remilk is a world leader in the production of dairy products without the use of animals and was the first company in Israel to receive regulatory approval from the Ministry of Health to market and sell its products in the country. Based in Rehovot, Remilk produces milk proteins that are identical in composition to those produced by cows using a unique, patented process.
The proteins manufactured by Remilk are identical to those found in cow’s milk. Remilk’s milk proteins enable the production of dairy products that preserve the taste, texture and nutritional values of their traditional counterparts while eliminating lactose, cholesterol, antibiotics, and hormones.
Remilk’s innovative production method improves the dairy production process dramatically, and for the first time in history, milk proteins can be used to make dairy products on a commercial scale while minimizing the environmental impact.
Aviv Wolff, CEO and founder of Remilk, said, “Our mission is to join an international revolution powered by companies around the globe who work relentlessly to protect our planet for future generations.”