Aleph Farms Ltd., Israel, announced two advances in the production of clean meat—expanding the composition of the meat itself and growing it in a more structured way.

Until now, clean meat—animal meat grown in a clean setting rather than in an animal—has often been limited to simple structures of one or two types of cell tissue, limiting its applications to ground meat.

“It has been a major hurdle to mimic meat’s many properties, such as texture, shape, juiciness and flavor,” says Shulamit Levenberg, co-founder and chief scientific officer. “Our use of the four cell types found in conventional cuts of meat, including vascular and connective tissues, is the key to a product that will be closer to the beef that people crave.”

Aleph Farms’ 3D technology creates a complex tissue composed of the four core meat cell types. They are then able to grow these cells on a proprietary 3D platform. Aleph’s clean meat mimics traditional cuts of beef in both structure and texture, but without beef’s environmental impact, heavy resource requirements or contribution to climate change.

The scientific team behind these innovations is headed by professor Levenberg, dean of the Bio-Medical Engineering Faculty at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

“Consumers – especially Millennials and flexitarians – care about animal welfare and the environment,” says Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO. “At the same time, they want to eat juicy, indulgent steak – not just ‘protein.’ Our goal is to help these consumers adhere to their personal standards, while getting to enjoy safe, sustainable meat.”