Vegan burgers like those made from soy are already common products for adherents of a meatless lifestyle. However, even though it has the appearance of real meat, the taste is far from a hamburger lawful. 221x2e
Fortunately, that is about to change with the Impossible Burger 2.0 (“Impossible Hamburger”, in English), the evolution of the vegan burger created by the company Impossible Foods.
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“You can smell that meaty aroma right off the grill”, said Laura kliman, a flavor scientist and daytime cook in the Silicon Valley test kitchen of Impossible Foods (“Impossible Foods”). “We are striving to get that total meat experience.”
“You can smell that meaty aroma right off the grill”
Impossible Foods is known for its plant-based vegan burger that tastes a lot like real meat. Founded in 2011, the company was the first to use an ingredient called heme, a blood-like compound found in all living things that can replicate the taste, color and aroma of meat.
Impossible Gurger 2.0 is currently sold in over 5.000 restaurants and chains across the US, including Momofuku Nishi, Umami Burger, and White Castle.
However, the company's new hamburger is totally different. The new “meat” has a juicy pink interior with a smoky, smoky crust. And, most important of all, fake meat is tender and flavorful.
O Impossible Burger 2.0 it is an improvement on the first version. If the current burger tastes like a regular steak, then this new version is a juicy, well-massaged steak.
“Unlike the cow, we get better at making meat every day”, said pat brown, CEO of Impossible Foods, who has taught biochemistry at Stanford University.
“We have discovered a whole new approach to producing meat that gives us the ability to deliberately control and make improvements in flavor, texture, succulence, appearance, cooking properties, shelf life, handling, production cost, nutrition – you name it.”
Impossible Foods quietly launched this new gluten-free burger on Monday, right in the middle of CES 2019, in Las Vegas. It will officially replace the older version starting next Tuesday.
First, it will be available at about a dozen high-end restaurants across the US, and then it will roll out to all of Impossible Foods' partner restaurants in early February.
The company plans to sell a raw version of the ground beef in supermarkets by the end of the year. The cost will be about the same as USDA ground beef, Brown said.
Impossible Foods isn't the only startup selling meat and dairy products made from vegetables. THE Beyond Meat sells everything from vegetable protein crumbles to chicken strips, and New Wave Foods produces fried shrimp with plant-based proteins and algae.
Data from Nielsen and the Plant-Based Foods Association show that sales of plant-based meats increased by 24% in 2018, while sales of animal meats grew by only 2% in the same period.
Impossible Foods' goal is to lessen the environmental impact of beef production on the planet. That's because livestock is hungry for resources.
Industrial livestock uses 30% of the earth's surface and contributes more than 18% of greenhouse gases, according to the United Nations. But Impossible Foods can produce a hamburger using a quarter of the water and less than 4% of the land — and emits a tenth of the greenhouse gases — than a conventional hamburger, Brown said.
“The entire mission of the company is to completely replace the use of animals as a food technology globally by 2035”, he said. "And that is unequivocally the most important mission in the world, period.”
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To achieve its mission, Impossible Foods needs to convince hamburger lovers to stop eating meat. But for that, your burgers have to taste, smell and feel like meat.
O Impossible Burger 1.0 has been a success, but has some problems. Its texture is a little weird – drier than a traditional hamburger. And it can only be cooked on a restaurant-style flattop grill.
“He would completely fall apart if you tried to throw him on a barbecue grill”, said Kliman. “It would stick to the grill and just disintegrate.”
The same goes for cooking fake meat in any dish other than a hamburger. Version 2.0 is more versatile and can replace ground beef in any recipe, Kliman said.
Not only can people use it to cook skewers and meat, but it can also be used in chili, dumplings, tacos, frittatas, and meatloaf.
“Anything you can imagine, you can do”, Kliman said. “You can cook it hot for a nice cut or low and slow.”
Impossible Foods has been working on version 2.0 since last year. In addition to trying to improve the product's vigor, the company also reduced cholesterol, fat and calories.
A plain hamburger now only has 240 calories – up from around 290 calories in the first version, which is about the same as a beef burger. The new version is also gluten free.
The company is also researching other products such as chicken, pork and fish. But for now, its main focus is beef. The next big product is likely to be steak, he said. Brown, which will be a challenge. But the company appears to be ready for that.
