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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

#31

Post by hugg »

breakingcups wrote: post #21
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…

A big thing for me was figuring out what vegetarian food I liked. There was a lot of experimentation. Building my own recipe bank for fast, easy to make food and more complex dishes. I am still expanding that knowledge.

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

#32

Post by lucideer »

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.

This question comes up quite often. I'm with you insofar as I also prefer a good vegetarian* product, but tbh, in my experience, almost every vegetarian burger (for example) one encounters day-to-day is in no way trying to "be" meat. Falafel patties, beetroot patties, sweetcorn patties, whole portobello mushrooms as patties, etc. I'd say the added diversity added by faux-meat products is not harmful.

* I'd like to say I prefer a good vegan/vegetarian product, but I have struggled to find vegan (egg-free/dairy-free) food I really love.

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

#33

Post by wlesieutre »

Scoundreller wrote: post #29

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…

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

The meat/dairy industry in the US is subsidized to the tune of $38 billion, there's a little more to it than "Costs more at the store so it must cost more resources to make."

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

#34

Post by ClassyJacket »

PurpleRamen wrote: post #26

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…

I agree, but Impossible isn't lab grown meat, it's just made from plants.

https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/3600189374...

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

#35

Post by joombaga »

dkobia wrote: post #16

Impossible burgers are awesome and I've had quite a few. It also really depends on how it's made and how it's dressed up - as with any burger. My only lingering issue is that it is a highly processed food, and psychologically it helps to know what you're eating.

You can still know what you're eating in a highly processed food, right?

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

#36

Post by hugg »

lucideer wrote: post #32
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.

This question comes up quite often. I'm with you insofar as I also prefer a good vegetarian* product, but tbh, in my experience, almost every vegetarian burger (for example) one encounters day-to-day is in no way trying to "be" meat. Falafel patties, beetroot patties, sweetcorn patties, whole portobello mushrooms as patties, etc. I'd say the added diversity added by faux-meat products is not harmful. * I'd like to sa…

Yeah I think those kind of alternatives are fine, since they don't really try to push "its just like meat!!" message, they all have distinct flavours.

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

#37

Post by astura »

I'll 100% be giving it a try (I'm already a long time vegetarian though). I like that it's BK doing this because BK has served a veggie burger (Morningstar Farms Patty) for around ~14 years, so they should be familiar with the demand for meatless products.

I remember when they first introduced a veggie burger, I wasn't sure the demand would be there, but it seems to have worked out.

So it remains to be seen if they'll keep the Morningstar version too.

I've never had a real Whopper, so I can't be comparing the two.

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

#40

Post by psychometry »

Scoundreller wrote: post #29

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…

It's easy to make spurious claims like "a $6 burger expends more resources than a $3 burger" when you don't define what "resources" mean in this case.
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