Israel’s chief rabbi has given a kosher stamp of approval this week to a company looking to sell steak grown from cow cells – while effectively taking the animal itself out of the equation.
Cultivated meat, grown from animal cells in a lab or manufacturing plant, has been getting a lot of attention as a way to sidestep the environmental toll of the meat industry and address concerns over animal welfare.
This method, however, has raised questions over religious restrictions.
Chief Rabbi Rav Dovid Lau weighed in on the issue for the first time, telling the Israeli firm Aleph Farms, which last year closed a $105 million funding round co-led by Abu Dhabi’s ADQ, that the cultivated thin-cut steaks it hopes to start selling this year are indeed kosher.
Aleph Farms says it collects sample cells from a living animal and then grows more in a cultivator that mimics conditions in the animal’s body. This is different from popular plant-based alternatives that do not have animal origins.
In an 11-page letter dated Jan. 17 to the company outlining the production process and referencing Jewish legal precedent, Rav Lau said the product falls into the category of “pareve” – meaning neither meat nor dairy. But he required it be clearly marketed as a meat alternative to avoid confusion with conventional meats.
While the decision was specific for Aleph Farm’s process, it sets a foundation for others. A spokesperson for Rav Lau said they have received similar requests from a number of companies.
Aleph Farm CEO Didier Toubia called Lau’s ruling a “benchmark, a reference-point for many other kosher organizations in Israel and abroad.”
And beyond that, Toubia said, it was a first step that will hopefully be followed by certification in the much bigger halal food market and even approval for Hindus, many of whom consider cows holy and do not eat beef.
Aleph Farms, which has actor Leonardo DiCaprio as an advisory board member, hopes to start selling its cultured thin-cut steaks to Israeli restaurants this year, pending approval by the Health Ministry, and in Singapore.
It is working on approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration ahead of an expected rollout there next year.
(c) The Algemeiner Journal
Sounds disgusting. Jewish men eating vacuum meat? Not ethically happy to the butcher.
How can they mark it kosher? Life is being tampered.
Cultivated meat, grown from animal cells in a lab or manufacturing plant AFTER GETTING THE MRNA SHOTS.
Does not this appear as cracked up blemishes in the meat production? Hardly seems driven to kosher even if it is edible by the public. Why do anything odd?
“Aleph Farms, which has actor Leonardo DiCaprio as an advisory board member, hopes to start selling its cultured thin-cut steaks”. This makes the process clear. Cells from a mature older cow are fused and grown in a cowlet thirty years younger and then extracted for cultivation.
I don’t understand why this isn’t aiver min hachai? Unless you take the cells after the shechita.
I totally agree with you.
That’s a reasonable question. Also, why would it be pareve? It would be interesting to see Rav Lau’s reasoning and also whether there are those who disagree.
Sounds absolutely gross.
It’s the avoda zora of animal rights getting involved over here.
Not sure why they’re even saying it’s parve if it’s harvested from an animal.
Hey, maybe it’s milchig and the cells are from the milk.