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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

#231

Post by Scoundreller »

cannonedhamster wrote: post #82
jsnider3 wrote: post #71

The real impact of this kind of technology will be when it becomes cheaper and starts to interest the general public.

It's already most likely cheaper when you take into account false pricing signals due to the fact that the US meat industry is heavily subsidized through taxation. Add to that lower healthcare costs due to less heart disease and realistically it should be pretty cheap comparatively. I've had this burger and I prefer the Beyond Burger, but the meat eaters that had it said it tasted just like a run of the mill fast foo…

Be careful, ounce for ounce, the meat substitute burgers may not be all that healthy.

The impossible burger has more fat, more saturated fat and more sodium than the standard beef patties. Less cholesterol though. Again, by mass (their patties are smaller, so direct comparisons are a little harder).

Comparison chart about halfway down: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/nutrition-environment-gene...

I know that the beef industry has a lot of subsidies (many billions per year), but how much impact does that have on price? Without subsidies, what happens to the $3.99 Big Mac? Would it go to $4.19 or $7?

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

#232

Post by lgleason »

Years ago I worked at a Burger King in the kitchen and someone ordered a vegetarian Whopper. We all looked at each other wondering how to do that when the manager came back and instructed us to make a Whopper without the meat patty. IE: A bun, with Mayo, lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup and pickles. This sounds a lot more appetizing than what we served that day...

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

#233

Post by mensetmanusman »

ghaff wrote: post #126
astura wrote: post #37

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'l…

I pretty much hate fast food (as opposed to fast casual) burgers in general so I won't be eating this. But I have (in fact, unknowingly--don't ask) had an impossible burger in a good burger place and I actually didn't learn it wasn't meat until a few months later. It tasted like a perfectly good burger to me.

Your comment reminded me of the Chris Farley coffe-crystals skit. Ha ( https://vimeo.com/173106148 )

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

#234

Post by cogman10 »

sethbannon wrote: post #207

Every modern society, looking back fifty years, condemns behavior once considered normal (male-only voting, interracial marriage bans, jailing gays, etc). I'm convinced industrial animal agriculture will be one of the things today's society is condemned for, fifty years from now.

I don't think that will happen until we get both cheaper and better animal product substitutes. Vegan substitutes usually fail at both which means they are niche mid-upper class foods.

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

#236

Post by bzbarsky »

iheartpotatoes wrote: post #145
favorited wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything is a chemical.

Right. But there's a difference between drinking a glass of water and glass of bleach. You are claiming they are equivalent. There's something called "context" in reading comprehension, it is when words take on the meaning relevant to the discussion. In this case, "chemicals" is shorthand for "bad chemicals." I don't understand why so many people fail to understand this and have to make this inane, childish observati…

> In this case, "chemicals" is shorthand for "bad chemicals."

One problem is that lots of people include tons of known harmless stuff under "bad chemicals" because it's "artificial" (even if it's chemically identical to "natural" things that they praise at the same time).

Or put another way, the use of "chemicals" in discussions like this often suffers from the problem described at " rel="nofollow">https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Motte_and_bailey>: people talk about "artificial chemicals" being bad, when challenged fall back on "we just mean the bad chemicals", but then go back to in practice talking and, importantly, acting as if they mean a much wider class of things.

So yes, context is important, but is also manipulated in many cases to effectively gaslight the reader by saying, "Oh, _that_'s not what we meant, of course; think about the context," when in fact "that" is what was meant. And I suspect that in many cases the manipulation isn't even conscious!

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

#237

Post by defective »

iheartpotatoes wrote: post #170
scott_s wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because when people talk about "chemicals", they are often flirting with the appeal-to-nature fallacy ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature ).

Right. It's a synonymous fallacy. We get it. Apparently we cannot move on until everyone is elevated to the same level of reading comprehension. Stop trying to score petty points, and discuss the issue that yes, there is some pretty nasty shit that is manufactured by chemical companies and put into our food, and stop trying to derail the argument to "own the libs." In other words: grow up.

You just said that someone is claiming that water and bleach are identical.

Let me put it to you this way, instead of saying "everything is a chemical": If you stand with the poster above worrying about "chemicals", perhaps state your question more clearly so we know exactly what we're getting ourselves into. I will even give you some examples. Do you perhaps mean chemicals known to cause cancer or other diseases? What about chemicals known to aggravate diseases or conditions? Or would it be enough to be simply suspected? Maybe your threshold of what is a sufficient amount of research should be mentioned. How many studies do you wait for before you eat a certain ingredient? Do all regulatory bodies need to agree?

That's certainly a lot of work going into asking a question, I suppose, almost as much as answering something like "are there [bad] chemicals in it?" What research is out there, is out there. Only you know what will make a "[bad] chemical" not just a "chemical".

Of course, if you know of a place that lists all the "[bad] chemicals" that you agree with, this [practically extreme] "lib" wouldn't mind seeing it.

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

#238

Post by tomcam »

greglindahl wrote: post #223
alpaca128 wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of interest, what's the reasoning behind a strict separation of the two? I understand it in the case of gluten free products because that can really have health implications, but when you are vegan for ethical reasons it shouldn't make a difference, right? But I'd say this is great news either way. I like meat, but when there's a way to get the same taste and texture without the bad consequences for animals…

It makes some of us vomit and then get diarrhea.

A double blind test would be interesting

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

#239

Post by WhompingWindows »

sethbannon wrote: post #207

Every modern society, looking back fifty years, condemns behavior once considered normal (male-only voting, interracial marriage bans, jailing gays, etc). I'm convinced industrial animal agriculture will be one of the things today's society is condemned for, fifty years from now.

The bias inherent in our psychology is very intriguing. We are still jailing blacks/men disproportionately, marriage between men was not allowed (and is not many places) until recently, we are still locking up non-violent drug offenders while murderers and rapists get paroled. And yet, there is only a token amount of outrage about these topics. Surely, we tell ourselves, we are notmaking the same ethical mistakes as "moderates" in totalitarian states or slave-holding economies; specifically, how are we much better, we who do not stand up and criticize, but rather tacitly condone these evil practices by our inaction?

In the marketplace of ideas, the criticisms of these obviously abhorrent practices simply do not get much currency. Where does the failed war on drugs rank in terms of politically important issues? How about wage slavery, student-loan-indentured servitude, or industrial meat farming?

I don't know much, but I do know that people form habits and tend to set their beliefs/wants in stone, such that they will simply overlook suffering caused by their meat eating, tough on crime stances, etc. If it stands in the way of their bacon cheeseburger, most people simply don't spare a thought for others' suffering.

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

#240

Post by astura »

intuitionist wrote: post #169
moosey wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Carl's also has the beyond burger, which I personally think is superior. My wife disagrees, and prefers your standard veggie burgers (we are vegans of 15 years).

My current diet is “intermittently vegan,” and when I’m not eating meat, I find myself preferring the taste of actual veggies in my veggie burgers. Where traditional veggie burgers fall short in my experience is their texture. No matter how much breadcrumbs or potato starch or xanthan gum you add, a patty based on beans and veggies is gonna be squishier than one based on muscle fibers.

Bobby Flay nails the texture on the veggie burger he serves at his restaurant chain (Bobby's Burger Palace). Here's the recipe: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/bobby-flays-v...

It's very, very delicious, but its not trying to taste like meat.

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