Israeli food-tech startup, SavorEat, has developed a robot that can cook personalised vegan burgers to suit customer tastes. The burgers are served at BBB restaurant in the coastal city of Herzliya.
Launched in 2018, the company specialised in meat analogues and was one of the first to use 3D-printing technology to prepare food.
“It’s the first time that a machine is making a personalised hamburger by itself,” said Racheli Vizman, CEO at SavorEat.
Vegan burgers are usually frozen and later cooked on a grill or stove. However, the startup’s technology allows chefs to make them on-site using a 3D-printing “robot” that can simultaneously make three different burgers using cartridges.
The cartridges contain oil and other ingredients such as beans, potatoes, and chickpeas to create a texture that “resembles that of real meat”, are kosher, and contain no animal proteins.
Customers can then decide how much fat or protein they want on their veggie steaks, which takes roughly six minutes to cook, depending on the customer’s preference – although a human is still required to assemble the burger.
“It’s a mix of innovation of meat alternative and digital manufacturing where we can also cook the product,” Vizman added.
The company announced its plans to expand into other markets like the US. In August last year, the startup has partnered with food-service firm Yarzin Sela and US catering facility Sodexo to use its 3D-printing system at American universities.
Other companies that are offering vegan burgers and steak cuts include Impossible Foods and Redefine Meat.
