By the end of the year, Impossible burgers — entirely plant-based hamburgers that taste and look like meat — will be on sale in American fast food chains.
To all intents and purposes, they look like ground beef burgers: they have the same pinkish colour at the centre, they sizzle on the griddle and they even "bleed". There is not a trace of meat in them, however, and they are entirely plant-based. We are talking about Impossible burgers, made to closely resemble real meat in appearance, texture, cooking behaviour and taste, and therefore to appeal to omnivores.
Impossible burgers were created by the Californian startup Impossible Foods. The goal of the company founded by Patrick O. Brown, a molecular biologist and former professor emeritus of biochemistry at Stanford University, is to "completely replace animals in the food system". It is undoubtedly a product with considerable economic potential — since 2011, Impossible Foods has received almost $390 million in investment — yet the idea that led Brown to found Impossible Foods is a noble one: to tackle at the root one of the planet's main ecological problems, responsible for enormous levels of CO2 emissions and vast consumption of resources, namely livestock farming. "By reducing the flavour gap between real meat and plant-based meat, Impossible burger makes it easier for everyone to make more environmentally friendly food choices," reads the American company's website, "and that is a big bet."
The Impossible burger, according to data provided by the producers, would have a far lower environmental impact than a beef hamburger. Producing the former emits around 0.8 kilograms of CO2, while the latter emits between 2.3 and 7.4 kilograms, with a resulting reduction in emissions of up to 87 per cent. Impossible Foods products would also consume fewer resources, since, with no animals to raise, their production requires around 95 per cent less land than intensive livestock farming and around 75 per cent less water.
But what, exactly, are Impossible burgers made of, and how do they manage to resemble meat so closely? They are composed of water, soy protein concentrate, coconut oil, sunflower oil, natural flavours, potato protein, methylcellulose, yeast extract, cultured dextrose, modified food starch, soy leghemoglobin, salt, soy protein isolate, mixed tocopherols (vitamin E), zinc gluconate, thiamine hydrochloride (vitamin B1), sodium ascorbate (vitamin C), niacin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin B12. The "secret" ingredient, however, is haem, a molecule found in the blood of animals, capable of binding oxygen, but also in the roots of certain plants, such as soya.
The scientists who created the Impossible burger believe that haem is fundamental to replicating the taste and certain characteristics of meat. To obtain the necessary quantity of haem, Impossible Foods would therefore have had to cultivate large amounts of soya, which would not have contributed to any real reduction in environmental impact. The researchers therefore turned to genetic engineering, managing to obtain the desired molecule through genetically modified yeast to which the soy leghemoglobin gene had been added.
It is clear that Impossible burgers are processed, artificial foods, made with many ingredients and far from natural, derived from intensive farming. It should be noted that, compared to the vast majority of meat produced through industrial livestock farming, they contain no antibiotics or hormones. According to some nutritionists, however, rather than investing in Impossible burgers, it would be more worthwhile to try to make "real" meat — from animals fed on what Mother Nature intended for them, grass — healthy, free of oestrogens, thyroid-inhibiting substances and antibiotics. Before bringing its products to market, Impossible Foods had to pass the tests required in the United States, but it is equally true that, as with all new technologies, the body of analyses and studies is not yet sufficient to deliver definitive verdicts. The nutritional information released by the company is positive: one serving contains 0 micrograms of cholesterol, 14 grams of fat, 19 grams of protein, 9 grams of carbohydrates and 240 calories, as well as a considerable quantity of vitamins and minerals added during processing.
These unusual plant-based burgers have been on sale since last year in around one thousand fast food outlets in the United States. They are set for exponential growth, however, as industry giant Burger King has announced that by the end of the year it will be possible to eat the Impossible Whopper at the chain's American locations. Impossible Foods has also announced that they will shortly begin to be sold in Asia. The company is also working to create other types of meat imitations, including pork, chicken and fish. The company's ambitious goal is not to attract vegans and vegetarians, but to convince meat lovers to give up their favourite foods and "completely replace the meat system by 2035", Patrick O. Brown has stated.
