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Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

nytimes.com

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Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#21

Post by breakingcups »

hugg wrote: post #4

Is it really better to make something "like" a meat product instead of just making a good vegan/vegetarian product? Since going lacto-ovo vegetarian myself, I just want tasty food, doesn't matter if it's "like" a meat product.

Speaking just for myself, yes a meat-replacement that tastes and feels very similar to real meat would be a huge step towards me eating less or no meat.

There's a subset of people who are content with good vegan or vegetarian food. That set doesn't include me. I would however like to not eat meat anymore for ethical reasons.

I lack the willpower however to commit to vegetarian and vegan food, because I absolutely do not like those dishes and I don't have the mental headspace to tackle that alongside with a dozen other improvements I'm trying to make in my life (eg. producing less trash, staying healthy, charity work, etc.)

Compare it to the vape-pens that can replace smoking a cigarette. I'm not well versed enough to know if the numbers back up my intuition on this, but on face value I'd say that if vape-pens are available to help the subset of people who would like to stop smoking but are finding it too hard, why would that be a bad thing? The people who want to stop smoking completely can still do so.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#22

Post by inciampati »

Pfhreak wrote: post #7
gwbas1c wrote: post #3

> Burger King’s chief marketing officer, Fernando Machado, said that in the company’s testing so far, customers and even employees had not been able to tell the difference between the old meaty Whopper and the new one. Ugh. First: The vegetarians that I know don't like meat. So making a veggie burger that tastes like the thing they don't like is just dumb. Second: When I tasted an Impossible Burger, it was awful. It…

I'm a vegetarian. I love meat. I'd eat meat all the time if I knew it didn't cause horrifying suffering and environmental damage. I've had the impossible burger (and liked it) as well, and on a highly mass produced burger like the whopper I'm willing to bet it's close to the real thing.

Abstinence from meat seems like an extreme step if all you are concerned about is environmental damage. Just eating meat at a "normal" frequency of two or three times a week would be enough to mitigate much of the impact. True organic agriculture is not possible without meat production as a side effect, and this can only be replaced by nonrenewable synthetic fertilizers.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#24

Post by dmritard96 »

gwbas1c wrote: post #3

> Burger King’s chief marketing officer, Fernando Machado, said that in the company’s testing so far, customers and even employees had not been able to tell the difference between the old meaty Whopper and the new one. Ugh. First: The vegetarians that I know don't like meat. So making a veggie burger that tastes like the thing they don't like is just dumb. Second: When I tasted an Impossible Burger, it was awful. It…

Vegetarian here.

Ugh. First: The vegetarians that I know don't like meat. So making a veggie burger that tastes like the thing they don't like is just dumb.

Guessing anecdotally, I know as many vegetarians as you. Almost every one of them is happy to have a good burger option. I'm sure some % would be ok without a meat clone but the utility alone of having fast-food chains offer good vegetarian food is amazing. My non vegetarian friends have tried the beyond and impossible burgers and the vast majority have found them to be a satisfactory alternative to conventional beef patties.

Second: When I tasted an Impossible Burger, it was awful. It tasted like a horrible veggie burger.

You are probably in the minority here or you didn't have it prepped well. I'd recommend trying one at umami burger as so far, I have found their preparation the most reliable and delectable.

I personally reduced my meat consumption for environmental and health reasons

That's great, and precisely why this space is taking off.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#25

Post by inciampati »

54mf wrote: post #13
gwbas1c wrote: post #3

> Burger King’s chief marketing officer, Fernando Machado, said that in the company’s testing so far, customers and even employees had not been able to tell the difference between the old meaty Whopper and the new one. Ugh. First: The vegetarians that I know don't like meat. So making a veggie burger that tastes like the thing they don't like is just dumb. Second: When I tasted an Impossible Burger, it was awful. It…

"First: The vegetarians that I know don't like meat." Hi, nice to meet you! Vegan for almost a decade, the smell of a burger on the grill in the summer gives me hella cravings. We exist. "Second: When I tasted an Impossible Burger, it was awful. It tasted like a horrible veggie burger." I'm jealous, you must not have ever eaten a truly horrible veggie burger. I had a Gardenburger in like 2005 that literally tasted li…

The cravings are probably a sign that you are missing something essential that is in the burger. It tastes good because it is nutritious. I would eat a burger occasionally to stay healthy.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#26

Post by PurpleRamen »

Damn, this day is ruining me. Took me way too long to realize that the title has beef-less written, not bee-less.

Anyway, Fast Food-Franchises are IMHO the perfect breeding-ground to raise lab-grown meat to success. Most of their meat is processed to a degree, that you can't taste the original texture or figure out their real source of it. And they are one of the biggest sellers for meat. Removing this chain will be a big service for environment.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#27

Post by dmritard96 »

inciampati wrote: post #22
Pfhreak wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a vegetarian. I love meat. I'd eat meat all the time if I knew it didn't cause horrifying suffering and environmental damage. I've had the impossible burger (and liked it) as well, and on a highly mass produced burger like the whopper I'm willing to bet it's close to the real thing.

Abstinence from meat seems like an extreme step if all you are concerned about is environmental damage. Just eating meat at a "normal" frequency of two or three times a week would be enough to mitigate much of the impact. True organic agriculture is not possible without meat production as a side effect, and this can only be replaced by nonrenewable synthetic fertilizers.

Citation needed

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#29

Post by Scoundreller »

In terms of resources used in their production, a $6 burger expends more resources than a $3 burger.

For those worried about the ethics of eating animals, I can understand the extra $3.

For those just worried about other wastes (eg: losing 90% of the food value by feeding it to cattle), this isn’t a magic bullet, for now. Those extra $3 went into something else, whether it was a complicated energy-intense process, or luxury vacations for the patent owners of the process.

A $4 beef burger where $1 went toward reforestation or some other project may have the most impact over a $3 beef burger or $6 Impossible burger.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#30

Post by PurpleRamen »

hugg wrote: post #4

Is it really better to make something "like" a meat product instead of just making a good vegan/vegetarian product? Since going lacto-ovo vegetarian myself, I just want tasty food, doesn't matter if it's "like" a meat product.

Small steps are important on any road of transition. People often don't like big changes, and are more likly to go back to their old habits when the difference is to big.
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