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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

#41

Post by malvosenior »

54mf wrote: post #8
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.

Yes, it is better! Part of the goal is to provide a "gateway patty" to make it easier for meat-eaters to reduce their consumption. Good for their health, good for the environment, good for the animals. (Also, I've been vegan for years and _love_ the Impossible burger.)

> Good for their health

It's definitely not clear that eating meat is bad for your health. In fact there's plenty of evidence to suggest it's good for you.

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

#42

Post by dmritard96 »

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.

It is a good vegan/vegetarian product though...

I hear what you are saying but for someone in my shoes (I'm vegetarian, my wife is not), this makes life so much easier.

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

#43

Post by robin_reala »

istjohn wrote: post #28

I really hope McDonalds adds a veggie burger to their menu soon, too. I try to avoid meat, but often end up eating it in fast food for the convenience and due to a lack of alternatives.

Where are you? There’s a full vegetarian menu in Sweden: https://www.mcdonalds.com/se/sv-se/hela-menyn/vegetariskt.ht...

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

#44

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

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.

Just echoing the sentiment that I didn't become a vegetarian because I didn't like the taste of meat.

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

#45

Post by kawsper »

istjohn wrote: post #28

I really hope McDonalds adds a veggie burger to their menu soon, too. I try to avoid meat, but often end up eating it in fast food for the convenience and due to a lack of alternatives.

They already have introduced a vegan burger, the McVegan, in some countries, they have been testing it in Finland and Sweden, https://www.mcdonalds.com/se/sv-se/product/mcvegan.html

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

#46

Post by cowkingdeluxe »

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.

They are also typically really high calorie (not that it's much different from a regular beef patty).

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

#47

Post by bitesociety »

bkane521 wrote: post #10
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…

For those like myself who have a diet largely consisting of meat, this sounds great for the exact reasons you described; reduced environmental impact and possibly greater personal health. I agree that the original Impossible Burger was disappointing, but if they manage to incrementally improve to the point of being barely distinguishable, I think overall its a really good thing.

Speaking as a vegan, by the numbers it's people like you not us who are the ones who are going to have the bigger positive impact on the environment by eating plant based options more often. It's encouraging to hear meat eaters being increasingly open minded...

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

#48

Post by astura »

54mf wrote: post #14
notwhereyouare wrote: post #11

I tried the impossible burger and personally didn't notice a difference. The boyfriend tried a bite, and liked it, but could taste something off. I'm kinda excited to see where both the impossible burger goes, and where other restaurants take this. Also for the price to come down, it was like $3 more than the boyfriend's burger

I'm hoping the Burger King trial goes well so we can get nationwide expansion, in large part to help bring the price down. That premium is still a little rough, Impossible is in a lot of restaurants but doesn't have the in-store presence that Beyond Meat has at the moment. Scale, scale, scale!

The newest version of the Impossible Burger is planning on being sold in stores. The older version only is in restaurants.

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

#49

Post by Scoundreller »

psychometry wrote: post #40
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.

Somebody is spending those dollars, they’re not burning them.

If you have an extra dollar, what do you do with it? You either spend it on land, labour or capital. Stuff, property, or other people that will spend it on one of the three above things.

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

#50

Post by TN1ck »

istjohn wrote: post #28

I really hope McDonalds adds a veggie burger to their menu soon, too. I try to avoid meat, but often end up eating it in fast food for the convenience and due to a lack of alternatives.

It seems that in some places they already have one, in germany we have the Veggie-Burger TS https://www.mcdonalds.de/de/produkte/produkt-profil?productN.... I liked it when I tried.
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