Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Impossible Foods says it is close to finishing a large-scale production facility

qz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 68 posts

Re: Impossible Foods says it is close to finishing a large-scale production facility

#31

Post by LeanderK »

itake wrote: post #24
LeanderK wrote: post #22

This is something i am really (REALLY!) excited about. I am a Vegetarian because of the environmental impact, but the desire for the taste is still there (been a few years). All the substitutes i have tried (until now) were bad and left me disappointed and i still have to fight the urge to order a good old schnitzel at a restaurant. EDIT: if somebody asks why i am being so strict...i will stop being strict when we st…

What makes you think that this is more environmentally friendly than beef?

well, intuition. Beef is extremely unfriendly for the environment. Also on their website it says:

>Because we use 0% cows, the Impossible Burger uses a fraction of the Earth’s natural resources. Compared to cows, the Impossible Burger uses 95% less land, 74% less water, and creates 87% less greenhouse gas emissions. And it’s 100% free of hormones, antibiotics, and artificial ingredients.

Re: Impossible Foods says it is close to finishing a large-scale production facility

#32

Post by [deleted] »

linkregister wrote: post #23

https://www.impossiblefoods.com/faq/ Nutrition Facts Serving Size (85g) Servings Per Container about 85 ------------- Amount Per Serving Calories 220 Calories from Fat 120 Calories from Saturated Fat 100 ------------- % Daily Value* Total Fat 13g 20% Saturated Fat 11g 55% Trans Fat 0g Cholesterol 0mg 0% Sodium 380mg 16% Potassium 250mg 7% Total Carbohydrate 6g 2% Dietary Fiber

[deleted]

Re: Impossible Foods says it is close to finishing a large-scale production facility

#33

Post by LeanderK »

linkregister wrote: post #23

https://www.impossiblefoods.com/faq/ Nutrition Facts Serving Size (85g) Servings Per Container about 85 ------------- Amount Per Serving Calories 220 Calories from Fat 120 Calories from Saturated Fat 100 ------------- % Daily Value* Total Fat 13g 20% Saturated Fat 11g 55% Trans Fat 0g Cholesterol 0mg 0% Sodium 380mg 16% Potassium 250mg 7% Total Carbohydrate 6g 2% Dietary Fiber

For special requirements (allergies, diets) reengineering the patty would be way easier than reengineering a cow, i would expect. This is their first product.

Re: Impossible Foods says it is close to finishing a large-scale production facility

#34

Post by wykydtron »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #15
pier25 wrote: post #12

> wheat, coconut oil, potatoes, and heme Replacing meat for carbs is not a great idea. Edit: I was wrong. 200cal only have 6g of carbs which is pretty good IMO.

I suspect by wheat they mean the gluten part.

this seems like it conflicts heavily with a large portion of their target demographic... Is the carbs also a double negative?

Re: Impossible Foods says it is close to finishing a large-scale production facility

#35

Post by dragonwriter »

acchow wrote: post #19
ChristianBundy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to nitpick, because I agree with your point, but that's the beauty of _economics_, not capitalism. Non-capitalistic economies (e.g. socialism) also optimize for high-yield products that require minimal labor, the difference being who owns the means of production (i.e. factories): the workers, the consumers, private shareholders, the state, etc.

If you're looking at it purely in terms of nutrition. But taste? Socialism doesn't measure the actual utility given by goods. Capitalism does by virtue of us spending our money according to what we like.

Socialism measures utility to social decision-makers, and, so, in the case of democratic socialism, weights utility equally across the citizenry, rather by wealth as in capitalism; wealth-weighting not only favors the near-term utility of the wealthy but also entrenches power, since future expectation of power has utility.

Of course, non-democratic (either in theory or practice) socialism (or non-socialist central planning) have unequal weighting that has the same kind of issues as wealth-weighting.

Re: Impossible Foods says it is close to finishing a large-scale production facility

#36

Post by subpixel »

LeanderK wrote: post #22

This is something i am really (REALLY!) excited about. I am a Vegetarian because of the environmental impact, but the desire for the taste is still there (been a few years). All the substitutes i have tried (until now) were bad and left me disappointed and i still have to fight the urge to order a good old schnitzel at a restaurant. EDIT: if somebody asks why i am being so strict...i will stop being strict when we st…

I've scaled back my meat consumption radically in the last six years or so and in my experience, taste is just a factor of habit. Change your habits and you can change what you perceive to be delicious.

Anecdotally, eating meat infrequently has resulted in me finding chicken and turkey generally flavorless and gross when I'm in a position where I must eat them. And while the smell of a burger cooking somewhere is still nice, the smell of bacon being cooked in our building has gone from sublime to rank.

When I do eat meat that I find tasty (burger, steak, kebabs) I've slowly come to appreciate that less is best, and more can turn my stomach. A thin patty ala Shake Shack is vastly preferable to an $18, 3-inch tall burger at a hip restaurant.

I haven't yet come around to vegan cheese. But based on other changes I can't rule that out.

Re: Impossible Foods says it is close to finishing a large-scale production facility

#37

Post by linkregister »

LeanderK wrote: post #33
linkregister wrote: post #23

https://www.impossiblefoods.com/faq/ Nutrition Facts Serving Size (85g) Servings Per Container about 85 ------------- Amount Per Serving Calories 220 Calories from Fat 120 Calories from Saturated Fat 100 ------------- % Daily Value* Total Fat 13g 20% Saturated Fat 11g 55% Trans Fat 0g Cholesterol 0mg 0% Sodium 380mg 16% Potassium 250mg 7% Total Carbohydrate 6g 2% Dietary Fiber

For special requirements (allergies, diets) reengineering the patty would be way easier than reengineering a cow, i would expect. This is their first product.

Allergies, yes. Zero carbs, probably impossible. That's okay though. No product can satisfy everyone!

Re: Impossible Foods says it is close to finishing a large-scale production facility

#38

Post by saycheese »

linkregister wrote: post #23

https://www.impossiblefoods.com/faq/ Nutrition Facts Serving Size (85g) Servings Per Container about 85 ------------- Amount Per Serving Calories 220 Calories from Fat 120 Calories from Saturated Fat 100 ------------- % Daily Value* Total Fat 13g 20% Saturated Fat 11g 55% Trans Fat 0g Cholesterol 0mg 0% Sodium 380mg 16% Potassium 250mg 7% Total Carbohydrate 6g 2% Dietary Fiber

This is easier to read on mobile: https://www.impossiblefoods.com/images/faq/nutrition-facts.p...

EDIT: Here's a link to the FDA comment I deleted, but is reference in the comment below: https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabel...

Re: Impossible Foods says it is close to finishing a large-scale production facility

#39

Post by jkarneges »

I haven't tried Impossible Foods yet, but I have been dabbling with Beyond Meat (both companies backed by Bill Gates apparently).

In case anyone is curious about this product category, here are my thoughts on Beyond Meat:

Beyond Meat has a normal burger replacement. Other than the factory-formed shape (easy to fix I'd think), the texture and taste approach the real thing. It probably wouldn't pass a blind test and it's expensive, but if they got the cost down and In-n-out started cooking with it I could see myself preferring it.

They also have a healthier burger (Beast). This one's not trying to be as convincing and isn't going to convert any carnivores. I don't really recommend it unless you must eat something healthy in patty form.

Then there's the Beefy Crumble. This is a ground beef substitute that isn't in patty form. It's on the healthy side and isn't going to fool anyone either, but I use it all the time as it's nice to have another protein in the rotation (all the Beyond stuff uses pea protein). Easy to throw into burritos or pasta.

Looking forward to the future of this space.

Re: Impossible Foods says it is close to finishing a large-scale production facility

#40

Post by snarf21 »

LeanderK wrote: post #22

This is something i am really (REALLY!) excited about. I am a Vegetarian because of the environmental impact, but the desire for the taste is still there (been a few years). All the substitutes i have tried (until now) were bad and left me disappointed and i still have to fight the urge to order a good old schnitzel at a restaurant. EDIT: if somebody asks why i am being so strict...i will stop being strict when we st…

Not judging your choice to be vegetarian, but do you think we could actually grow/extract enough coconut oil to manufacture this at anything approaching a global scale? There has already been a run on coconuts due to crazy demand for coconut water. [http://time.com/4488043/a-major-coconut-shortage-with-global...]
Post reply on HN