Building a Better Veggie Burger, by Meredith Jacques
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Photo credit: https://medium.com/trendwatching-pulse/why-impossible-burgers-tesla-strategy-shows-how-to-spot-the-trends-of-tomorrow-94531f506632
A company called Impossible Foods has been working on a veggie burger that looks, smells, feels, and tastes like real meat. When it cooks, it looks like ground beef--sizzles and browns, and it even oozes "blood." How did this impossible food become possible?
The burger is a blend of plant-based proteins and fat and the blood effect is from the molecule heme. Heme is a component of the large molecule hemoglobin in human blood that carries oxygen and makes blood red. It is produced by plants in small quantities. The scientists at Impossible Foods engineered yeast to produce the heme molecule, and it is that heme product that is added to their veggie burgers to give them the realistic look and taste. Flecks of coconut oil are added, which melt during the cooking process causing the burger to ooze fat like a beef burger.
Even meat eaters who tasted the burger said they probably couldn't tell the difference if they didn't know it was a veggie burger!
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/06/21/482322571/silicon-valley-s-bloody-plant-burger-smells-tastes-and-sizzles-like-meat
supplemental resource: http://www.chemistry.wustl.edu/~edudev/LabTutorials/hemoglobin.htm
Why is this type of research important?
How could this new type of "meat" this benefit vegetarians?
Would you eat one of these veggie burgers?
This is a demo comment.
ReplyDeleteMeredith Jacques
I used to be a vegan and I was personally really excited for this kind of development to show meat-consumers that you can help protect the environment, decrease inhumane factory farming, and consume plant based foods that are good for your health without having to only eat fruits and vegetables. Stuff like this shows "normal" people that meat isn't a necessity and anyone can cut down on their animal consumption and it would better their own health and the environment.
ReplyDeleteShirin Saha
Having this meat would allow vegetarians an alternate choice if they're new to the lifestyle and are finding it difficult to stay away from meat, or they are simply have a craving for meat.
ReplyDeleteRaquel Morgens
I would not eat an impossible burger. An impossible burger has 18 million times the amount of estrogen as a regular burger, due to the soy content. Having too much estrogen in your diet can significantly increase the risks of cancer. I would not eat an impossible burger until there is more information on the impacts of this. Nonetheless, this innovative research is important as the global population increases and the environment changes, because alternative food options are becoming increasingly important.
ReplyDeleteCarissa Bersche
This is so interesting, I did not know that about soy!
DeleteInteresting read! This summer I tried going plantbased/vegan for a couple weeks. I acutally tried Beyond Meat burgers and at first they didn´t taste bad. The more I ate them, the more I realized I didn´t like them that much. It has a really odd smelling when you´re cooking them and they definitely did not taste like meat to me. I think Beyond Meat uses Beet Juice to give it that red/blood look, so cool to learn there´s actually a plant molecule that produces a blood effect.
ReplyDelete-Trinity Mathis
My mom is vegan and I'm always trying her food. I have ate a vegan burger before and it's not bad at all but I wouldn't eat it like I eat regular burgers. I think this was really interesting to read because it's helping people that just became vegans learn not to eat meat.
ReplyDelete-Alyssa Butts
I don't think this burger would be beneficial for vegetarians, I have a friend who is vegetarian and he always says that he finds meat substitutes to be weird. He thinks it's better to eat vegetables instead of trying to eat fake meat and I agree with him. I would not try the impossible burger, I would rather eat a black bean burger instead.
ReplyDelete-Ilori Tankpinou
I would definitely try one! I think this research will help coax more people into trying vegetarian foods. I don't think this will be very helpful on the other hand to vegetarians unless they miss meat or a food with it. But again this research may be good to help replace meat completely and help people eat more vegetables.
ReplyDelete-Tyler A.
i think this type of research is important because our livestock industry produces i think 40% of our greenhouse gas emissions so being able to cut back on that and finding alternatives would probably be a good thing for the environment. this kind of meat could benefit vegetarians because it can make the change easier by giving them something that still resembles meat. I personally would be open to trying one of these burgers but i cannot guarantee i would eat them regularly. - Nathan Clark
ReplyDelete