Today, we are happy to announce that the Chief Rabbi of Israel, David Baruch Lau, has ruled Aleph Farms’ cultivated steak to be kosher, which means permitted for consumption by Jews under religious law. This ruling, coming from the leader of the Chief Rabbinate — a bellwether rabbinic council for religious certifications in Judaism — opens the door for us to receive a kosher certificate ahead of our market launch later this year.
This ruling is meaningful not only for Aleph Farms as a company, but also for the entire cultivated meat sector. It sets a foundation for an inclusive public discourse about the intersection of tradition and innovation in our society. At Aleph, we innovate in order to provide quality nutrition to anyone, anytime, anywhere in service of people and the planet, and that includes people with unique culinary traditions. With this significant milestone, we’re excited to be allowing more groups of diners to enjoy our products safely within the bounds of their cultural norms, helping us to advance our inclusive vision for food security and tap into different ways of life.
This ruling paves the way forward as we work to get kosher certification for our production facility in Rehovot and also for our individual products. More broadly, it indicates an openness among religious authorities to publicly assure adherents that cultivated meat products are appropriate to consume. To this end, we are also in contact with Muslim, Hindu and other religious authorities about certifying our products as viable dietary options for groups that have different religious practices.
The global kosher beef market size is expected to reach approximately $100.85 billion USD by 2030. The growing preference for kosher beef in key countries such as the US, France and Israel, which have the highest Jewish populations and account for over 86% of the global Jewish population, is driving the market. In 2021, approximately 73.9% of Israel’s population was Jewish, making it a key market for kosher beef. This ruling indicates that upon market launch in Israel, expected in the near future, local authorities will likely confirm Aleph Farms cultivated steaks are kosher, enabling Jewish diners who observe kashrut to incorporate them into their diets.
We are currently working closely with regulatory agencies around the world as we prepare for the commercial launch of our first product, a cultivated thin-cut beef steak. We also plan to produce different cuts of steak as well as cultivated collagen through additional proprietary capabilities we’ve been developing. In all cases, Aleph Farms’ products are produced from starter cells that come from a fertilized egg, which was sourced from a premium Black Angus cow named Lucy – she lives on a breeding farm in California. From a one-time collection of Lucy’s fertilized egg, Aleph Farms can grow thousands of tons of cultivated meat without engineering or immortalizing cells, avoiding slaughter and acting as part of an inclusive solution for sustainable and secure food systems.
