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Impossible Burgers' Key, Bloody Ingredient Wins FDA Approval (cnbc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the I-can't-believe-it's-not-meat dept.

The FDA has approved the key ingredient used in the vegetarian-friendly Impossible Burger. "The ingredient, soy leghemoglobin, releases a protein called heme that gives the meat substitute its distinctive blood-like color and taste," reports CNBC. The burger comes from a company aptly named Impossible Foods, which started raising millions of dollars in 2015 to pursue a plant-based burger that truly tastes like meat. From the report: In a letter to Impossible Foods released Monday, the FDA deemed soy leghemoglobin GRAS, or generally recognized as safe, in its most recent review. "Getting a no-questions letter goes above and beyond our strict compliance to all federal food-safety regulations," Impossible Foods founder and CEO Patrick O. Brown said in a statement. "We have prioritized safety and transparency from day one, and they will always be core elements of our company culture."

9 of 445 comments (clear)

  1. As a vegetarian since 15 years... by carlhaagen · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...I can't say that I've ever missed that specific meat-like taste (even less so the color) in any of the many meat facsimiles I've tried. I suppose the reason why one becomes a vegetarian plays a big role in this.

    1. Re:As a vegetarian since 15 years... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Informative

      Once upon a time killing your livestock was only for special occasions or when there was no other food left.

      Umm, no.

      As an example, cows and bulls are born in about equal numbers. But you only need one bull for all your cows. So the extra bulls get slaughtered every year.

      Hell, the "one bull" gets slaughtered every few years since inbreeding is a bad thing. Once all the cows are his daughters, he's history.

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  2. Eat meat ffs by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 2, Informative

    Avoiding animal products. People who do not eat any meat, fish, poultry, or dairy products are at risk of becoming deficient in vitamin B12, since B12 is only found naturally in animal products. Thatâ(TM)s why vegans should make sure to include B12-fortified foods or a B12 supplement in their diets. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/n...

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  3. Protein called heme by vossman77 · · Score: 4, Informative

    soy leghemoglobin, releases a protein called heme that gives the meat substitute its distinctive blood-like color and taste

    Oh my god, so much wrong with this sentence:

    • leghemoglobin is the protein
    • heme is an organic molecule
    • leghemoglobin does not RELEASE heme, it holds the molecule inside
    • when the heme molecule in the protein binds oxygen it provides the red color.

    source: I am a biochemistry lecturer and wikipedia

  4. Re: nutrition value and environmental impact? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2, Informative

    Strange that no one of the die hard vegetarians knows that ...

    No idea why you americans keep spreading that myth. First of all the vitamin in question is not "B" but "B12".

    Then: there are plenty of vegan foods that have plenty of B vitamins of any type, like 11 or 12. E.g. mushrooms, Sauerkraut, fermented Soy, like Tofu, Algae, even black tea comes to mind, everything containing yeast, e.g. beer! Who had guessed that, beer contains vitamin B! Carrots and other "root vegetables".

    Sorry, that you only can get vitamin B* from meat is the biggest lie in the internet.

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  5. Re:Why am I an omnivore ? by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Informative

    Take a look in the mirror, and smile. The Incisors and Canines in your mouth evolved primarily for eating meat,

    Nope. Gorillas have massive canines but they never eat meat.

    Incisors? They work for plants, too. Biting apples is much easier with incisors than molars.

    The puny little canines that humans still have? Throwbacks to when we used to fight like gorillas. No use at all for hunting/killing.

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  6. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  7. Re:Why am I an omnivore ? by arth1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nope. Gorillas have massive canines but they never eat meat.

    They also don't have apolipoprotein E2-E4, which developed after our common ancestors split, and is a big factor in how much meat we can eat.

  8. Re:We need more of this ... by skam240 · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Totally removing meat would require much more farm land to be devoted to edible crops to the point it may actually be impossible."

    That statement couldn't be more wrong. All the food those animals eat has to be grown somewhere and much of the food they eat does not become the muscle fiber we eat, it either serves other purposes for the animal or gets expelled in their poop. On top of that, there's the space the animals need to live in and this space goes up the more ethically you want your meat raised.

    This makes meat production an incredibly inefficient means of general food production. If we didn't eat meat we would use significantly less farm land in total.

    From/; http://www.bbc.com/future/stor...

    "Food, especially livestock, also takes up a lot of room – a source of both greenhouse gas emissions due to land conversion and of biodiversity loss. Of the world’s approximately five billion hectares (12 billion acres) of agricultural land, 68% is used for livestock."

    Don't get me wrong in any of this, I eat meat. I just couldn't let something some obviously wrong go by without saying something.

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