


Still, regulators have taken notice and the meat industry is watching and mobilizing to "protect beef nomenclature."Īlready, Beyond Meat's debut as a public company may be confirming the meat industry's concerns.

Right now, the solutions used to help cells grow are expensive and limited since they're mainly made for medical therapy purposes, said Bruce Friedrich, executive director of the Good Food Institute, which advocates for meat alternatives. On the horizon is meat grown in labs by culturing animal cells, but it will be some time before people can get a taste. Beyond Meat stock more than doubles on first day of tradingĬhristopher Field, who is at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and who knows the founder of Impossible Foods, noted people don't have to give up meat entirely to make a difference, and that pork and chicken have much smaller environmental footprints than beef.Cows also produce the greenhouse gas methane, mostly through burps. Beef is considered taxing on the environment because of the resources it takes to grow crops to feed cows. Are they better for the Earth?Įxperts say reducing overall red meat consumption would be better for the planet. Impossible burgers aren't yet available in grocery stores. For now, expect to pay more.Īt a Sobeys in Toronto, two Beyond Meat patties cost $7.99, roughly double the price of two ground beef patties. The idea is to eventually make Beyond and Impossible burgers cost the same or less than beef. Both Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have also updated their recipes, and may keep doing so to get even more like meat. Unlike with a steak, any discrepancies in taste between beef and the plant-based burgers may be masked by buns, cheese and toppings. "It tastes exactly like meat," he said, while waiting in line to get the burger for lunch. Taste is subjective, but reviews generally say Beyond Meat and Impossible burgers taste similar to meat.Ĭhristian Acosta, who works in New York, said he's had the Impossible burger several times and can't tell the difference. "A beef patty is one natural ingredient: beef," says the North American Meat Institute, which represents meat makers.īeyond Meat's signature hamburger is now available on some Canadian grocery store shelves (Beyond Meat) How do they taste? The meat industry, meanwhile, is appealing to people who prefer simpler ingredient lists. Impossible says its patties have a flavor and hue similar to beef partly because of soy leghemoglobin, a protein the company makes by genetically modifying yeast. Impossible Food's patties have soy protein and coconut oil.

What's in them?īeyond Meat's ingredients include pea protein and canola oil. People also may not realize the saturated fat content can be similar to beef burgers, he said. Yoni Freedhoff, an obesity expert at the University of Ottawa. "People are going to be fooling themselves into thinking these are not just better, but healthy," said Dr. Few would call it healthy, especially if served with fries and a soda. Plant-based eating goes mainstream as Beyond Meat targets Canadian grocery shelvesĪt Umami Burger in New York, for example, a burger with two Impossible patties, cheese and fixings tops 1,000 calories.Pediatric allergist traces 'mystery' reactions to pea protein - an increasingly popular ingredient.Some may like that the plant-based patties have fibre, but dislike that they're higher in sodium.įor overall diet, what matters more might be how the patties are served, whether it's at Burger King, White Castle or elsewhere. Protein content is about the same, while other nutrients vary. Ground beef's nutritional profile can range, but a similarly sized patty with 80 per cent lean meat has around 290 calories. For better or worse, patties from Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods can be nutritionally similar to beef.īeyond Meat's 4-ounce patty is listed at 270 calories, while Impossible Foods' is listed at 240 calories. So are the plant-based patties better for you or for the planet? Here's what you might want to know before taking a bite: Are they healthier?Īs with many questions about diet, it depends. If you want to skip meat, a new era of options is here.īeyond Meat and Impossible Foods are among the companies racing to tap into the massive market of meat eaters by more closely mimicking the taste of beef than vegetarian patties of the past.
