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Impossible Burgers’ key, bloody ingredient gets long awaited nod from FDA

arstechnica.com

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Re: Impossible Burgers’ key, bloody ingredient gets long awaited nod from FDA

#21

Post by astura »

maxxxxx wrote: post #19
jlawson wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The goal isn't just to have a "veggie burger bleed", it's to replicate the experience of eating meat. Perhaps they have failed so far (according to your taste test), but the goal is valid. If someone can find a way to make a product near-indistinguishable from meat without raising and killing animals, it would be a massive victory for the environment (meat production is CO2-intensive), for the cause of bringing decen…

I think for that purpose it's better to work on lab-grown meat. Making veggies taste like meat seems misguided to me. Either eat real veggies or eat real meat.

What about the people who gave up meat for health reasons?

There is a market for this, just because you aren't in the target market doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Re: Impossible Burgers’ key, bloody ingredient gets long awaited nod from FDA

#23

Post by mrec »

Jade_Jet wrote: post #18
peterlk wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell if you're joking or not. Smoking used to be considered healthy, leeches were healthy, letting blood was how you got over sickness, drinking a mercury-based concoction was once thought to be an elixir of immortality. Maybe coffee is good, maybe it's bad. Maybe wine is good, maybe it's bad. How often are diets shown to not do the things they are supposed to? Humans are wrong about nutrition (and health) a…

http://web.uconn.edu/mcbstaff/graf/Medical.html Leeches actually are valid medical science. There just were not better alternatives at the time, and they sometimes can still be used today.

Blocked for me.

    web.uconn.edu uses an invalid security certificate. 

    The certificate is only valid for the following names: web2.uconn.edu, phonebook.uconn.edu, testsite.uconn.edu 

    Error code: SSL_ERROR_BAD_CERT_DOMAIN

Re: Impossible Burgers’ key, bloody ingredient gets long awaited nod from FDA

#24

Post by xigma »

maxxxxx wrote: post #19
jlawson wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The goal isn't just to have a "veggie burger bleed", it's to replicate the experience of eating meat. Perhaps they have failed so far (according to your taste test), but the goal is valid. If someone can find a way to make a product near-indistinguishable from meat without raising and killing animals, it would be a massive victory for the environment (meat production is CO2-intensive), for the cause of bringing decen…

I think for that purpose it's better to work on lab-grown meat. Making veggies taste like meat seems misguided to me. Either eat real veggies or eat real meat.

Let the market decide. Psychologically, "grown in a lab" is problematic. When people imagine that, they think of Frankenstein. When they imagine actual cattle, they think of green pastures.

Neither fantasy is reflecting reality, but that's secondary. Mock plant-based beef is good middle-ground.

Re: Impossible Burgers’ key, bloody ingredient gets long awaited nod from FDA

#25

Post by glass_of_water »

clankfan wrote: post #15

I've had several impossible burgers and they completely live up to the hype. They taste very good indeed. But I have noticed a slight uptick in anxiety after eating them, maybe 30 mins after or so. This anxiety comes out of the blue, the first few burgers I had, I had zero health or safety thoughts in my mind that might have precipitated the anxiety. Interested if anyone else has had a similar experience.

I always get this wheezy feeling like a little bit of fluid is building up in my lungs after I eat the impossible burger. I don't know what causes it; the only thing I can think of is maybe the unusually high iron content (at least compared to anything else in a plant-based diet).

Re: Impossible Burgers’ key, bloody ingredient gets long awaited nod from FDA

#26

Post by Jade_Jet »

mrec wrote: post #23
Jade_Jet wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://web.uconn.edu/mcbstaff/graf/Medical.html Leeches actually are valid medical science. There just were not better alternatives at the time, and they sometimes can still be used today.

Blocked for me. web.uconn.edu uses an invalid security certificate. The certificate is only valid for the following names: web2.uconn.edu, phonebook.uconn.edu, testsite.uconn.edu Error code: SSL_ERROR_BAD_CERT_DOMAIN

You are right, edu sites... I changed the link to http.

Re: Impossible Burgers’ key, bloody ingredient gets long awaited nod from FDA

#27

Post by LeoPanthera »

alrs wrote: post #22

Make a zero-carbohydrate meat substitute, and I'm interested. Otherwise, no.

This is a completely content-free comment. No, its not carbohydrate-free. No, it's not supposed to be. Bitching because it's something different from what you want is so childish.

Re: Impossible Burgers’ key, bloody ingredient gets long awaited nod from FDA

#28

Post by adrianmonk »

maxxxxx wrote: post #14

I don't get the point of having a veggie burger bleed. I tried an Impossible Burger a while ago and didn't find it that great. It doesn't taste like real meat and is just an average veggie burger. I think it's more of a gimmick.

Actual animal-meat burgers don't literally have blood in them. They have myoglobin, which is similar to the hemoglobin found in blood, but different. So a burger doesn't bleed, it has moisture which makes it wet and myoglobin which makes it red, but the red liquid isn't blood.

Anyway, there are 3 purposes I can think of:

(1) Looks. The myoglobin substitute, leghemoglobin, that they put in the Impossible Burger will make it look more like real meat, which will visually appeal to people who like meat.

(2) Flavor. Myoglobin also affects flavor, so again a more realistic imitation of meat. (Incidentally, apparently myoglobin content is the main difference between dark and light meat chicken. Myoglobin stores oxygen, so muscles that get used more need to contain more of it. Since chickens walk way more than they fly, chicken breasts have little myglobin whereas chicken legs and thighs have more.)

(3) Nutrition. Myoglobin contains iron. People always talk about vegetarians getting enough protein, but iron might actually be a bigger challenge. And heme iron (as found in meat's myoglobin and in Impossible's leghemoglobin) is easier to absorb than non-heme iron (as generally found in plants).

Re: Impossible Burgers’ key, bloody ingredient gets long awaited nod from FDA

#29

Post by maxxxxx »

xigma wrote: post #24
maxxxxx wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think for that purpose it's better to work on lab-grown meat. Making veggies taste like meat seems misguided to me. Either eat real veggies or eat real meat.

Let the market decide. Psychologically, "grown in a lab" is problematic. When people imagine that, they think of Frankenstein. When they imagine actual cattle, they think of green pastures. Neither fantasy is reflecting reality, but that's secondary. Mock plant-based beef is good middle-ground.

I don't think mock plant-based beef is a good way. It's highly processed food with a ton of weird ingredients. Fine as a snack or novelty from time to time but not good for daily consumption.

I am not worried about people's perceptions of lab grown meat. Such perceptions change quickly if a product is good. They also shouldn't think of green pastures when they see meat. They should think of the hellish life most of the animals had.

Re: Impossible Burgers’ key, bloody ingredient gets long awaited nod from FDA

#30

Post by xigma »

pmoriarty wrote: post #2

It'll be interesting to see what effect this stuff has on people after 20 years of use. Until then, I'm not touching it. There are plenty of other tasty meat substitutes out there with more tried-and-true ingredients.

Did you miss out on this part of the article?

"There are more than 10,000 chemicals added directly or indirectly to foods in the US and food makers use an estimated 1,000 without notifying the FDA. In a policy statement as recent as Monday, July 23, the American Academy of Pediatrics noted that of the nearly 4,000 additives inventoried by the FDA, only about 263 had reproductive toxicology data, and developmental toxicology data was only available for two of the additives."

Better make sure those "tried and true" substitutes don't use any of those...

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