Recreating meat is not just a question of taste. It is an engineering problem. Muscle is made of long, aligned fibers, and most plant-based systems struggle to reproduce that structure at scale. Tender Food Inc.’s recently published patent (WO2025217332A1) offers an innovative solution. Instead of forcing ingredients through heavy extrusion, it uses controlled liquid flow to build long, aligned fibers that behave like muscle.
A liquid curtain that builds muscle-like fibers
Tender Food Inc., now operating under its parent company Lasso, has patented a system that builds meat-like fibers using a controlled liquid process instead of pressure, extrusion or molding. The idea is simple enough: create long, aligned strands that behave more like real muscle, and do it in a repeatable, scalable way.
The system centers on a spinning device that sprays a food mixture into a chamber. Inside that chamber, a smooth circular “waterfall” of liquid flows down. When the sprayed mixture hits this moving curtain, it firms up instantly and forms thin fibers. Those fibers fall onto a catcher below, where they gather in a neat ring and are later dried.
Front view of the complete fiber-spinning system, showing the liquid-curtain chamber, collection strainer, and recirculating fluid loop integrated into a mobile unit.
Engineering the bite, not just the fiber
Why does this matter? Because the patent defines the texture these fibers can reach in a very controlled way. The ranges described for chewiness, cohesiveness and shear strength fall right where chicken breast, pulled meat, and structured snack fibers typically sit. In other words, the machine isn’t just forming strands. It is shaping the exact “bite” the final product will have.
The design also lends itself to steady production. The liquid curtain can come from one inlet or several, and any excess liquid drains into a tank below, gets reused and cycles back through the system. The fiber catchers sit on a rail, so once one fills up, it can be swapped out while the machine keeps running.
Patent drawing (left) and prototype hardware (right) showing the fiber collection strainer (450) and its rail-mounted implementation, positioned beneath the liquid curtain to enable controlled fiber collection and container swapping during operation.
The examples in the patent show how flexible the setup is. The same hardware can spin fibers from mixes used for plant-based meats, from gelatin systems used in confectionery and cell-culture scaffolds, or from fruit-based blends for snack applications. Change the recipe going into the spinner, and the machine creates a different type of aligned fiber.
Cotton candy physics, but for protein
Tender Food began at Harvard with a cotton candy-like spinning system that transformed simple plant proteins into long, aligned fibers. The company recently rebranded under the name Lasso, which now serves as the parent platform built to scale the technology far beyond meat alternatives. Lasso develops the fiber spinning hardware, licenses the processing system and expands the technology into categories like snacks, bars, confectionery and pet food. Tender Food continues as a core brand within the Lasso portfolio, focused on whole cut products that best showcase what the spun fibers can do. In that context, this patent captures one of the foundational mechanisms that powers both the platform and the Tender line.
Congratulations to the inventors, Luke MacQueen, Grant Gonzalez, Ethan Miller, Mary Feyrer, Josie Jean Lee and Elizabeth Gmoser for their contribution to the field.
Lab Grown Technologies highlights meaningful innovations shaping the future of cellular agriculture and tissue engineering. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on the Lab Grown Technologies LinkedIn Page.
This post is based on publicly available information. Lab Grown Technologies is not affiliated with the inventors or organizations mentioned.