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Burger King is rolling out meatless Impossible Whoppers nationwide

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Re: Burger King is rolling out meatless Impossible Whoppers nationwide

#41

Post by goda90 »

Here an interesting quote[0] from the founder of Impossible Burger that kind of touches on the meatless vs vegetarian/vegan discussion happening a lot in this thread:

"[Before becoming a vegan] I loved putting milk in my coffee and cereal, but plant-based milks don’t work for me so far. No-one is trying very hard to deliver the full experience of what consumers value from milk. We don’t want to follow the course of soya and almond milk. We’re after 100% of the market, not a niche of people avoiding meat or being health conscious.

To capture the whole market you have to deliver whatever it is that consumers value from that category of product. People have been making veggie burgers forever but not trying to make something that replicates the crave-able experience that meat lovers enjoy."

[0]https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/08...

Re: Burger King is rolling out meatless Impossible Whoppers nationwide

#42

Post by mikestew »

bifrost wrote: post #17
LeoPanthera wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as it's described as "meatless" and not "vegan", it's not misleading. It's still vegetarian.

Not if it has meat juice on it due to how its prepared. I realize some people are willing to be handwavey about it...

No need to be so dismissive, there's nothing hand-wavy about it. That meat juice you think I'm so concerned about? Hey, I didn't request that an animal be slaughtered for my meal, that was the guy before me. If some of his meat drippings fall on my Impossible Burger, no purity tests have been failed.

Re: Burger King is rolling out meatless Impossible Whoppers nationwide

#43

Post by rottyguy »

had my first impossible burger this weekend. the patty itself was like 6oz and cost $15 just for the burger (no fries). i'm in NYC and even this is a bit high for the area. it was also sitting on a large bun topped with lettuce/tomorrow. the patty was overwhelmed. I thought it tasted just ok and would give it a C. The whopper patty tastes better IMO.

Re: Burger King is rolling out meatless Impossible Whoppers nationwide

#44

Post by [deleted] »

rossenberg79 wrote: post #28

There’s a good reason why these sort of products are marketed as meatless and not vegetarian, and it’s not because they still contain some animal products. When a true vegetarian is hungry, the first thing that comes to their minds are plant based foods. If the first though is of juicy burgers or bacon or chicken then that person is not a real vegetarian. To be vegetarian is to be vegetarian in mind and identity. Mea…

[deleted]

Re: Burger King is rolling out meatless Impossible Whoppers nationwide

#45

Post by ndespres »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #37

This is nice for all the reasons mentioned but honestly I'm probably not going to ever eat it until it makes its way onto the value menu. I don't go to fast food to get a $5 burger, I go there to get a $1.55 burger. I can't be the only one.

Well at some point we will have to reckon with the economics of how a $1.55 burger comes to be. It's simply not possible without sacrificing health, animal welfare, and the environment. Not trying to be preachy about this, but in a cheap meal there are many costs upstream which you pay for one way or another, just not at the counter.

Re: Burger King is rolling out meatless Impossible Whoppers nationwide

#46

Post by noselasd »

bifrost wrote: post #27
Consultant32452 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you be more specific? Are you referring to cheese? Do they cook the burger in animal fat?

I'm referring to the process of cooking it. They don't separate the food and you get cross-contact with meat and dairy proteins - making it non-vegetarian and definately not vegan. This is basically all marketing driven (which is fine) but its not animal-product free, which is what normal people think when they see "plant based" food.

How much of an "impossible" 150g burger are we talking about here that contains animal meat ? 10% ? 50% ?

Re: Burger King is rolling out meatless Impossible Whoppers nationwide

#47

Post by dashesyan »

rossenberg79 wrote: post #28

There’s a good reason why these sort of products are marketed as meatless and not vegetarian, and it’s not because they still contain some animal products. When a true vegetarian is hungry, the first thing that comes to their minds are plant based foods. If the first though is of juicy burgers or bacon or chicken then that person is not a real vegetarian. To be vegetarian is to be vegetarian in mind and identity. Mea…

> To be vegetarian is to be vegetarian in mind and identity.

I've been a vegetarian for 7 years. I identify as vegetarian. That doesn't mean I have some sort of purity of mind and spirit. It just means I don't eat meat, gelatin, etc... I enjoy fake meats, and I'm excited to try one of these.

Re: Burger King is rolling out meatless Impossible Whoppers nationwide

#48

Post by JohnFen »

mhandley wrote: post #8
bifrost wrote: post #2

Its kinda misleading, there's still animal products in this because of how the food is prepared...

Are vegetarians the target for this? I wouldn't have thought you'd find too many of them in Burger King. I'm not a vegetarian, and do like a burger occasionally. On those rare occasions (usually on long journeys) when I do go to Burger King, if there's a good tasting beef alternative that's easier on the environment than beef, why not.

I have an interesting anecdote of possible relevance to this. A company that I worked for a few years ago was near a vegan burger joint. Their burgers were works of genius -- they were excellent and even meat-eaters like myself literally could not tell that there wasn't any meat in the things.

We hired a new dev who was a vegan from birth, and had never eaten food intended to taste like meat. In an effort to be inclusive, our manager took us to this restaurant for the welcome lunch, so that everyone would be able order freely.

The new hire gave it a try, but it turned out to be too much like the real thing, and he couldn't stomach eating more than a couple of bites of it.

That was what made me realize that fake vegetarian meats were not really intended for vegetarians. They are intended for current meat-eaters and meat-eaters who are trying to reduce or eliminate their meat consumption.

Re: Burger King is rolling out meatless Impossible Whoppers nationwide

#49

Post by bifrost »

pazimzadeh wrote: post #13
Consultant32452 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you be more specific? Are you referring to cheese? Do they cook the burger in animal fat?

I think that the Impossible Burger originally achieved its taste by using heme protein isolated from cow blood, but it looks like that's now done by expressing and purifying soy leghemoglobin in a yeast expression system, so I'm not sure what bifrost is referring to.

I'm def not in the camp of being PO'ed by that but I understand why some people are. One thing I learned long ago was that there were "dieters" and "ethical vegans" and only sometimes did they overlap. The availability of the IB is great for dieters which increases demand and thus eventually the "ethical" population is served.

Re: Burger King is rolling out meatless Impossible Whoppers nationwide

#50

Post by Jesus_Jones »

rossenberg79 wrote: post #28

There’s a good reason why these sort of products are marketed as meatless and not vegetarian, and it’s not because they still contain some animal products. When a true vegetarian is hungry, the first thing that comes to their minds are plant based foods. If the first though is of juicy burgers or bacon or chicken then that person is not a real vegetarian. To be vegetarian is to be vegetarian in mind and identity. Mea…

When (probably not an if at this point) there are meat substitutes that are palatable to carnivores, will vegetarians accept them, meaning eat them? It's an interesting question, but I expect there will always be people that like the current vegetarian no meat lifestyle, even if there are non-meat but meat-like substitutes they'll avoid them.

I do love a burger, even though I feel like I'm moving toward the veggie lifestyle for health and environmental reasons. I do have one vegetarian friend who likes meat-like substitutes :-).

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