Ian McWeeney
Professor Cogdel
DES040A A01
04 December 2019
Raw Materials
The Impossible Burger is a product of Impossible Foods that uses plant based products instead of beef to create a burger. They were created in 2011, and are motivated to transition the hamburger industry to strictly plant based foods. They use many products that attempt to mimic the feel of a beef burger, such as heme from soybeans for the “bleeding” feel, and food starches to hold it all together. Many aspects go into the life cycle of an Impossible Burger, and the purpose of this paper is to show the origin and transformation of the raw materials involved in the production, manufacturing, distribution and sales of it. The Impossible Burger attempts to mimic a “real” meat hamburger, but instead of using meat, they apply a mix of plant based materials such as soy proteins, coconut oils, sunflower oils, and natural flavors to give the burger the feel of a meat burger. One of their biggest accomplishments being their use of heme, from soybeans, to imitate the blood of a real cow based burger. There are more raw materials that go into the production of the burger than just the contents of the burger: the acquisition of coconut, sunflower and soy requires processing by machines in factories to separate the needed parts, the use of plastics to package the burger, as well as the petroleum in trucks used for distribution.
The Impossible Burger has many raw materials that go into the production of the burger, and this all starts with the acquisition of these materials. Impossible Foods has their main ingredients posted on their website, impossiblefoods.com, for everyone to see, and they include “Water, Soy Protein Concentrate, Coconut Oil, Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavors” as well as “2% or less” of many vitamins and starches(Impossible Foods FAQ, What are the Ingredients).
The company advertises actively that their burgers are made mostly from soy from soybeans, as it is their most important and prominent ingredient to make their burgers. They use soybeans in two ways, one to make protein isolate, and in another to make leghemoglobin, or heme. Soybeans are grown in tropical and temperate regions, where 80% of soybeans are grown in the United States, Argentina and Brazil, according to worldwildlife.org. The soybeans that are used for the protein isolate are treated with glyphosate, a pesticide. Glyphosate is a fairly safe herbicide that has a “typical field half-life of 47 days”(National Pesticide Information Center, Environmental Fate). However, this chemical always ends up degrading into carbon dioxide when used in soil, so it adds to the global carbon dioxide problem and is in the atmosphere for a long time. The plant is then harvested by a combine, which runs on oil, and then moved to trucks to be transported. After the soybeans are harvested, both the GMO soybeans and regular soybeans, they are transported by truck if they are from the U.S. or by ship if from Argentina or Brazil, which I will go into later.
One of the other most prominent ingredients in an Impossible Burger, is sunflower oil. Sunflower oil is derived from the seeds of sunflowers that are grown on a farm. According to worldatlas.com, Ukraine and Russia lead the production of sunflowers in the world for the use to make sunflower oil, making 11 and 10.6 millions of tonnes respectively. Sunflowers are harvested when ready by either combine or by hand cutting the heads off, which is the part needed for sunflower oil. These are then put on ships to be transported to the main factory locations in the United States.
Another major piece of an Impossible Burger is coconut oil. Coconut oil comes from coconuts, which grow on trees in tropical conditions. A lot of coconuts are grown in asian countries, and worldatlas.com ranks the top five producers of coconuts in this order: Indonesia, Philippines, India, Brazil, Sri Lanka. Coconuts are harvested off of trees as they fall off, and then taken on ships to factories to be compressed into oil. The coconut oil is separated from the meat of the coconut, and then ready to be used.
There are also two more important ingredients that Impossible Foods adds to their product to make it what it is, and that is Food Starch and Methylcellulose. Food starch is composed of “staple foods like potatoes, wheat, maize (corn), rice”(Wikipedia, Starch). All of these products are harvested around the world and transported to Impossible Foods factories to be used in the processing of the burger. The other part that aids the starch, is methylcellulose. It is a chemical compound that is completely modified, and is used to add a meaty texture to the burger.
Those are the products that go into the burger, but there are also raw materials that go into other parts of the burger's life cycle. Oil is needed to fuel the ships and trucks, plastics are needed to wrap the raw patty, and cardboard is needed to package the Impossible Burger before being distributed. All of this has long term effects, which I will go into later.
The next step after acquiring these raw materials is the manufacturing, processing, and combining of these materials to make a burger. Soybeans are processed into soybean protein isolate “from "white flakes," made by dehulling, flaking and defatting soybeans by hexane extraction”(Texas A&M University, Food Protein Research and Development Center). This takes no extra raw materials, but prepares the soybean for the burger. The non-gmo grown soybeans are also processed, but in a different manner. They are manufactured in a manner to allow yeast to grow, as they are using this to make the soybean leghemoglobin, or heme. Once this is complete, it is now ready to be added to the burger. The sunflower seeds are removed from the sunflower head, and then pressed to become an oil. Coconuts are also processed in a similar manner, where they are pressed to release the oils from the meat, creating coconut oil. All of this is then combined together in the end in the factory, to create the Impossible Burger. After being wrapped and packaged in plastic and cardboard, the product is ready for its next journey.
Next step in the life cycle of the burger, is transportation. Transportation for the Impossible Burger is worldwide, as “Currently, the Impossible Burger is available in the United States, Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore”(Impossiblefoods.com). Therefore, they need trucks and ships to transport the product. There are many raw materials that go into the production of a cargo ship and trucks, but that’s for a different life cycle. One major raw material that is within the realm of the Impossible Burger transportation, is the oil that powers the ships and diesel engines of the semi-trucks. Oil is harvested straight out of the earth, and then purchased in bulk for the cargo ships and then semi trucks refill at gas stations. An immense amount of oil is needed to fuel the transportation of the products, which has major drawbacks and environmental effects. It is essentially the only raw material needed to transport the burger.
A major part of a product's life cycle is its reusability and recyclability. The Impossible Burger is an edible product, so it doesn’t really have any reusability within itself besides energy conversions. As well as one of the only real left over parts of the burger is fecal matter, besides the parts of the raw materials that aren't used, such as sunflower stems and coconut shell and meat. The plastics cannot be recycled because they have food contamination on them. The cardboard can be reused multiple times to transport large quantities of product, as it is not being broken down or contaminated in the distribution process. All in all, the Impossible Burger is a consumable product, therefore it does not have a major theme of reusing and recycling its raw materials, because they are all consumed. Staple life cycle phases are reused, such as farms, trucks, ships, cardboard and the machines used to process the food, but the raw materials have no reusability factor.
The final step in the life cycle of a product, is its waste and emissions. Once again, the Impossible Burger itself as a food item, has minimal waste, besides fecal matter which enters the sewage system and is discarded in that manner. However there is waste at every step along the way to the final product. In the very beginning during the acquisition of the raw materials, the pesticide that is added to one of the farms of soybeans creates lots of carbon dioxide emissions. It begins as a weed killer, glyphosate, but according to the National Pesticide Information Center(NPIC), “both products[of glyphosate] are further degraded to carbon dioxide (npic.orst.edu, glyphosate). Carbon dioxide is a major harm to the atmosphere and a contributor to rising temperatures. More waste is also created in the harvesting step, for example when the sunflowers are harvested, they only use the head of the sunflower, not the stem. The excess is then wasted, as it has no purpose in the production of the Impossible Burger. Same goes for the coconut oil, where the coconut is compressed to make the oil, so the left over parts of the coconut are wasted.
Shifting from food waste, most of the waste in the life cycle of the Impossible Burger comes from manufacturing and transportation. The transportation of the raw materials and the distribution of the burger uses and immense amount of oil, a non-renewable resource. The crude oil used in diesel engines causes immense gas emissions, including carbon dioxide. These trucks drive cross-country to deliver to factories, restaurants and grocery stores. The cargo ships also run on oil, and they travel extensive distances across the sea, polluting the ocean as well as the air with their carbon emissions. The raw material of oil causes the majority of waste in this life cycle, as the Environmental Protection Agency says that these greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere “from a few years to thousands of years”(EPA, Overview of Greenhouse Gases). Greenhouse gases are also emitted from the factories, through the burning of fossil fuels.
There is one more material that is wasted, and that is plastic. Thebalancesmb.com states that “plastic items can take up to 1,000 years to decompose”(thebalancesmb.com, the decomposition of waste in landfills). These plastics cannot be recycled like others because they have food contamination, therefore they contribute to the growing plastic footprint. Overall, the Impossible Burger doesn’t create as much waste as other products, but it still creates substantial waste.
The Impossible Burger is a revolutionary evolution of the well known hamburger, to try and convert modern societies to stop using meat products. Meat products produce an immense of environmental problems because of the methane produced by animals. The idea of creating an almost identical food from completely different raw materials is ground breaking, but the question remains if this burger is truly “better” for the environment. There is still lots of processing and emissions given off, as well as many GMO’s that go into the production and growing of the materials. Overall, the environmental effects do seem reduced, but still not really “better” for the Earth. There are still major carbon emissions at most stages of the life cycle, which I didn’t expect before examining the life of a soybean burger. I didn’t think the combination of these materials would produce this much waste, but it just shows how easily we can harm the planet. While this may or may not be the solution to helping the environment, it’s definitely a step forward.
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David Martindelcampo
Ian McWeeney & Isabelle Carrel
SAS 043, A01
Profesor Cogdell
Impossible Burger Energy Consumption
Introduction
Impossible Foods is a company founded by Stanford professor Patric Brown, whose goal is to reduce the destructive impact on the environment by the meat industry. The Impossible Burger is a product of Impossible Foods that imitates the consistency and taste of beef burgers through plant based ingredients. These plant ingredients have been used as the main argument to switch from their beef counterparts, as Impossible Foods claim that the energy resources used to make the plant hamburgers are non intensive and “drastically reduces humanity’s destructive impact on the global environment”(Cite). By investigating the Impossible Burger’s raw materials, manufacturing processes, distribution, use, selective reuse, and waste management, I will show how although the Impossible Burger is conservative with energy use in some aspects of life, the energy consumption in other aspects, especially transportation, is anything but environmentally friendly.
Raw Materials Acquisition
Many types of raw materials are consumed for the production of the Impossible Burger and significant amounts of energy are consumed to make those materials. Impossible Burger doesn’t disclose where they source their ingredients and therefore the raw materials for them, but threw general industry suppliers, we can track the energy use in those ingredients.
Soybeans, especially GMO varieties, are very commonly grown in the upper midwest of the USA (Cite). For each ton of soybeans produced, 9,500 liters of water are needed to irrigate them and therefore supplied to the farm (Cite). Water is typically supplied via electric pumps sending water up to holding reservoir at the highest point in the water network and flows to consumers. (Cite) The amount of energy consumed for water distribution depends drastically on the location and infrastructure, but generally, it takes 2.725 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity to lift a million liters of water 1 meter (Cite). Considering a water tower is approximately 50 meters tall to provide adequate water pressure, it would take roughly 1.294 kWh of electricity supply the 9,500 liters of water needed for a ton of soybeans (Cite). Soybeans also require large amounts of fertilizer, especially with potassium in forms like potash (Cite). Potash is obtained by mining salt reserves to subtract it, which can be energy intensive. Heavy petroleum operating vehicles carve threw salt reserves to obstruct and move them through tunnels to the surface. The tunnels are lit threw large lighting arrangements and have fans circulating fresh air into them, which all rely on electricity. The deposits are then crushed, ran threw electrolysis, and boiled to separate out the potash, which requires significant amounts of electricity and natural gas to operate(Cite). The specifics again are not specified and also vary on the scale and style of production. Furthermore, I couldn’t find details about the gasoline usage of the mining vehicles as most common manufacturers tend to not list and gasoline usage varies drastically depending on the machine specific use case. Soybeans farming also use heavy amounts of herbicides to reduce weeds, which is commonly Roundup, a form of glyphosate (Cite). The various chemicals used to make glyphosate are distilled, heated, and distilled, requiring electricity, petroleum, and natural gas in unspecified amounts to create it. On average, it takes 195,200 BTUs, the equivalent of 57.194 kW of energy, to create 1lb of the herbicide, which is used across one acure (Cite). Lastly, energy is also used for planting, tilling, and harvesting the plants. For only tilling the soil, an estimated 4 to 6 gallons of diesel fuel is spent per acre. An additional 2 to 2.5 gallons are then used for planting, weeding, and harvesting the crops (Cite). This is a considerable amount of energy just to go into crop maintenance from tractors and harvesting equipment.
Like mentioned earlier, Impossible doesn't disclose where their source their sunflowers oil from and therefore sunflowers, so I’ll base my analysis on common sunflower supplies. Ukraine and Russia are the largest suppliers of Sunflowers in the world(Cite). However locally, North Dacoda, South Dacoda, and Minasoda are the largest suppliers of sunflowers with majority used for oil production (Cite). The water needed for sunflower farming is approximately 19 inches (Cite). This means across an acre, 226 kWh worth of energy is needed to supply each acre of land with the 1.95 million liters of water it needs. Sunflowers also need small quantities of potassium based fertilizers like potash, to meet their growing pass (Cite). Like mentioned before with soybeans, the exact energy consumption of electricity, petroleum, and natural gas for potash production wasn’t able to be found. As with many other crops, Sunflowers use glyphosate as an herbicide to reduce/eliminate weeds. Like mentioned earlier, it requires 57.194 kW of energy to make a pound of glyphosate which is used for one acre of cropland (Cite). Lastly for the energy used in planting, tilling, and harvesting the sunflowers, they use the same row crop production methods as soybeans, so the average amount of diesel used by tractors and other harvesting equipment is expected to be around 6 to 8.5 gallons per acre (Cite).
The source of coconuts for their oil is also not specified, but are commonly grown in and sourced from India, the Philippines, and Indonesia (Cite). Like most plants, Coconuts need water, but about 200 to 250 liters every day per tree to be precise. Considering each acre of land can have roughly 400 trees on it, an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 liters are needed every 4 days per acre(Cite). Although a lot of energy would be needed to move that much water, the regions can get 1 to 4 meters of rainfall each year, averaging 100,000 liters across 1 acre in 4 days, so farmers may not even need to supply water the trees (Cite). Coconuts also need manure for nutrients, which can take many forms. However as coconut farms are usually operated on small scales and by family, I was unable to track down an accurate reflection of the energy consumed to produce said manure(Cite). Nitrogen fertilizers are also used as nutrients with an average of 250g given per tree (Cite). The fertilizer uses the Haber-Bosch process, where large amounts of natural gas is used to heat air and water to produce it (Cite). I was unable to find specifically how much natural gas, and therefore energy, is used to produce a quantity of fertilizer, unfortunately. Lastly for harvesting, people with ladders are used to harvest the coconuts from trees when ripe. This means no patronum, electricity, or other energy source is used for harvesting with current methods (Cite).
Now that all major resources have been harvested and collected, they are then moved to the next stage in their production cycle, which is manufacturing.
Manufacturing
Between the input of raw materials and the output of a burger patty, many resources have to be made and therefore a decent amount of energy is consumed to make those materials. Like mentioned before, Impossible doesn’t disclose where they obtain their ingredients, so we will have to rely on conventional methods as a base line.
The GMO soybeans discussed earlier are now turned into soybean protein concentrate and soybean protein isolate. Although two separate ingredients, as both are soybean protein, they follow a similar manufacturing process to isolate them. To manufacture them, they rely on alcohol, acid, and water baths in combination with drying, centrifuging, and distilling. Processes like distilling and drying consume natural gas in order to release the needed energy at the manufacturing scale. Electricity is used threw process like centrifuging material as well as basic operations like lighting (Cite). I was unable to find direct sources for the scale at which the companies consumed these energy sources, so that will have to be done it future research. Additionally, further research into the production of components like coconut oil and heme are needed to be done, as I couldn’t finish my research on them However, my research into the hamburger production itself lead to dead ends, as impossible won't reveal their manufacturing techniques. All that is consumed certainly is electricity, but at an unspecified quantity. But after considering the hamburger’s production, it would only seem fair to evaluate the energy that went into shipping the supplies and sending out the completed patties.
Distribution
Even though the Impossible Burger is advertised as an ecco/energy friendly alternative to traditional meat, the amount of transportation of materials and resources is huge in respect to the scale of the company. Since the company's current factory is located in Oakland, CA, all supplies must be shipped to and from there. The materials that go into making the burger comes from the from the other side of the US and the Pasific Ocean while they are delivered across the US, all they back to the east coast (Cite). An average semi truck has an average mpg rate of 4-8 (Cite). Across hundreds and thousands of miles, this consumes absurd amounts of petroleum for just sipping the supplies. Barges however can get a ton of cargo 647 miles with just one gallon of fuel (cite). This is amazingly good, but considering most of the resources comes from the continetal US, this doesn’t drastically compensate for the amount of gasoline used by semi trucks Overall, this shows how the transporting of burger components are consuming high levels of energy and drives up the embodied energy.
Use
With Impossible Burger being an edible product, the energy for usage is mainly spent on refrigeration and cooking the burger, For refrigeration, it takes on average 1 to 2 kilowatts a day to power a fridge(Cite). Obviously a whole fridge isn’t used to store one thing of hamburgers, so embodied energy being added to the burger is a fraction of that, but depends on personal use. According to Impossible burger, to cook the patty, all you need to do is put it on a stove and cooking it like a typical burger, “2-3 minutes per side”(Cite). With a gas stove, it requires roughly 670 BTUs of energy or 0.67 cubic feet of natural gas per minute to operate (Cite). Assuming a stove is on for ten minutes to cook one or a set of burgers, 6,700 BTU or 6.7 cubic feet of gas is spent. With an electric stove, it requires roughly 15 watts of electricity to operate per minute (Cite). Using the same assumption the stove is used for 10 minutes to cook the hamburger, 250 watts of electricity is used. Now after use/consumption of the burgers, some remaining materials in the form of packaging can be recycled to contribute back it’s own or other life cycles.
Recycling
After general use/consumption of the burger, some elements are unable to be recycled due to food contamination, but the one that is is very energy efficient, which is cardboard. In the process of recycling, it consumes electricity to shred, poverize, and turn it into a pulp. Then natural gas is used to heat up and dry the pulp to create new cardboard or other paper products. I was unable to find specifics on the amount of energy it consumes however. This is process is very common with manufactures and leads to 70-90% on average of the cardboard itself to be recycled (Cite). Lastly, for the materials that can’t be recycled, they are disposed of.
Waste Management
In the handling of waste products, consuming of energy tends to be low, as much is not done to it. The only products left to be trashed is either leftover patties or the plastic used into incase the for supply. A garbage truck that consumes petroleum for operation then picks it up and goes to a landfill. There, the trash is unloaded and other heavy petroleum operating machines role it down to compress the garbage and barry it (Cite). Overall, the processing of trash doesn't consume much energy and is mainly just petroleum.
Conclusion
To say it simply, the Impossible Burger can be energy efficient in some aspects throughout its life, while being terribly inefficient in others. The beginning of its life is very intensive in terms of energy compared to the rest of its life cycle. Energy is poured into fertilizers and supplies to feed the crops. The crops then process through various stems to produce the hamburger, consuming tons of electricity and natural gas. Once assembled, it is sent all across the USA through petroleum consuming trucks, burning countless gallons of gasoline in the process. It is then stored, cooked, and the leftovers are trashed, using relatively low amounts of energy in the process. The impossible burger however in on the path to being more energy efficient. As the company grows, more infrastructure at varying locations will bring down the amount of energy used to transport materials to and from factories. This shines a light on the future of the product for its total embodied energy to be lower and have its beginning life more closely match its end.
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Isabelle Carrel
DES 40A
Professor Cogdell
6 December 2019
Impossible Burger: Wastes and Emissions
In an age where climate change poses a serious threat to biodiversity and people’s livelihoods, plant-based meats provide an ecologically conscious alternative to traditional meat-based products. The Impossible Burger in particular has enjoyed widespread publicity, with numerous chains clamoring to adopt the plant-based patty. Burger King now offers the Impossible Whopper, a product so popular that stores have had difficulty keeping up with demand. These burgers aren’t just satiating alternatives to animal-based products, however; they help the environment by significantly reducing carbon emissions. Impossible Foods, the company behind the Impossible Burger, aims to restore biodiversity and reduce the impact of climate change by transforming the global food system. The Impossible Burger uses 87% less water, 96% less land, 89% fewer greenhouse gas emissions and 92% fewer aquatic pollutants compared to traditional beef. However, although the Impossible Burger is a largely environmentally friendly product, there are still significant wastes and emissions involved in its production. In this paper, I will examine the various wastes and emissions associated with different stages in the life-cycle of the Impossible Burger, focusing on how materials are acquired, manufactured, distributed, used, recycled, and how the company manages waste.
Raw Materials Acquisition
Impossible Burger production begins with the acquisition of raw materials. The main raw materials in the Impossible Burger are water, soy protein concentrate, coconut oil, sunflower oil, natural flavors, heme and other minor ingredients. Although the burger contains mostly organic ingredients, the US Department of Agriculture prohibits the organic label for genetically modified organisms. According to the company website, the raw material production stage contributes the most to total environmental impact across several factors including aquatic eutrophication, global warming potential, land occupation and water consumption. Impossible Foods relies on large-scale commodity crops, having recently switched from wheat to genetically modified soy.
Although Impossible Foods doesn’t reveal where they source their water, drinking water is typically supplied to the food industry either by local government authorities or by the food industry itself. Most drinking water supplied to the food industry comes from public supplies, originating from surface water, groundwater, rainwater or seawater sources. Water treatment processes vary depending on the source water.
Another main ingredient in the Impossible Burger is soy protein isolate, used to add protein to the burgers. Soy production comes with significant environmental costs. Soy needs reliable moisture to grow, and it takes 9500 liters of water to produce one ton of soy beans. Impossible Foods uses inorganic soybeans, which tend to have a higher water footprint due to irrigation requirements. Although soy uses just 28% of the amount of water used in dairy production, soy production has been blamed for contributing to deforestation in the Amazon. Soybean cultivation destroys habitats for wildlife and produces greenhouse gases. Impossible Foods’ soy is genetically modified, which allows farmers to produce an abundant harvest with a lessened environmental impact by reducing transportation costs. Genetically modified soy is grown in the United States, while GMO-free soy requires carbon-intensive importation from Brazil. However, GMO use is controversial because it creates a dependence on agricultural biotechnology. GMO soy is typically sprayed with weed killer Roundup, which has a toxic effect on human cells. There is a high incidence of birth defects and cancers in people living near crop-spraying areas.
Another issue is that soy protein requires large quantities of water to remove non-protein components. Processing of industrial soybean crops requires large amounts of acid-neutralizing lime, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Although synthetic fertilizers are capable of supplying essential nutrients, they have long-term negative effects. These fertilizers kill beneficial microorganisms that convert dead human and plant remains into nutrient-rich organic matter. Soy protein processing creates soy whey, which has no use and must be discarded as waste.
The Impossible Burger’s third ingredient is coconut oil, made by pressing fresh coconut meat. Although Impossible Foods does not reveal where they source their coconut oil, coconut oil typically has a low environmental impact. Many conventional coconut oil brands are refined using industrialized equipment, and the resulting oil is refined, bleached and deodorized. Coconuts are dried into coconut pieces called copra, which are shipped to plants to make oil. Coconuts are typically grown in tropical areas, like Indonesia, the Philippines, and India, and require fossil fuels for transportation. Growing coconuts does not require pesticides or herbicides, and coconuts are typically harvested by hand. This method of harvesting cuts down on emissions associated with traditional farming methods, eliminating the need for tractors and other heavy machinery. However, coconut farming often necessitates the clearing of coastal mangroves for use in monoculture farming. Monoculture farming depletes biodiversity, adversely affecting soil quality and leading farmers to turn to chemical fertilizers to boost productivity. Although chemical fertilizers are important for cost-effective production of commercial crops, commercial fertilizers increase nitrate concentration in groundwater which can compromise the nervous, endocrine and immune systems of young children and fetuses.
Coconut oil is typically refined using hexane, a chemical classified as a hazardous air pollutant by the Environmental Protection Agency and as a neurotoxin by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, the chemical fertilizers used in coconut oil production seeps through the soil into groundwater and other water sources, leading to contamination. Although chemical fertilizers allow farmers to produce more high-quality crops in the short term, they may damage soil health. These chemical inputs threaten local biodiversity as well as soil, water and air health.
The Impossible Burger’s next ingredient is sunflower oil. Ukraine, Russia and the EU produce most of the world’s sunflower oil, and it has a high environmental impact due to its relatively low yield per hectare. Because of its low yield, sunflower production requires more fertilizers and pesticides per ton of oil produced compared to other vegetable oils. In addition, sunflower oil is typically processed with hexane. Companies typically use a distillation process to reuse as much hexane as possible in order to cut costs. Hexane inhalation can cause mild central nervous system effects, including dizziness, giddiness, slight nausea and headache.
Another important ingredient in the Impossible Burger is heme, an iron-rich molecule sourced from yeast and genetically engineered soy. Heme naturally occurs in hemoglobin in animal blood and myoglobin, but Impossible Foods has figured out how to synthesize it from soybeans. Although some consumers display concerns about the safety of heme, Impossible Foods’ studies on animals have found no ill effects. Impossible Foods produces heme via fermentation in large batches. After fermentation, the protein is separated from the yeast and fermentation. This separation requires clean water to isolate target heme before being used as the key ingredient in the Impossible Burger. The Impossible Burger also uses genetically engineered soy to produce its heme. They take DNA from the roots of soy plants, where a small amount of heme is produced, and inserts it into genetically engineered yeast that is then fermented to mass-produce heme. The company uses a weak regulatory process called “Generally Recognized as Safe”, where the company does its own research and chooses its own reviewers to certify that the product is safe for human consumption.
Manufacturing, Processing and Formulation
Impossible Burger manufacturing is environmentally friendly compared to traditional beef patty production. Production of an Impossible Burger required 87% less water, 96% less land, and produces 89% fewer greenhouse gas emissions and 92% less aquatic pollutants compared to an equivalent amount of beef. Water consumption is reduced by more than 79% as a result of avoiding the irrigation use to cultivate feed crops for cattle. Impossible Burger production starts with liquid ingredients run through clean-in-place equipment, which allows operators to clean tanks, pipes and general processing equipment without taking everything apart and reassembling. This process saves a great deal of resources compared to doing things by hand, and it creates opportunities to reuse and recycle water. Next, the liquids and fermented heme are added to the solid ingredients in a high-volume mixer, which produces a mixture with the appearance of raw ground beef. The formed product is conveyed through a tunnel freezer, which is maintained at 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the patties are frozen, they go through a visual quality check before packaging to inspect for foreign material and out-of-spec product. Unfortunately, Impossible Foods does not list any byproducts produced in their manufacturing process, nor do they provide comprehensive information about air and water quality conditions inside their factories.
The company reuses water byproducts via reverse osmosis, which saves over 30% of their total process water with minimal change in energy use. The company saves more water than discarded at a ratio of 3:2, and recovers cleaning chemicals over discarded cleaning chemicals at a ratio of 3:1. In addition, the company is replacing their 2016 equipment with more efficient equipment to save on water and chemical costs over the long term. However, although the company has made advances in plant protein characterization and food science that makes their products realistic, there are still several engineering issues that contribute to high costs and low volume. The extruders that process crops into meat-like food products have not been redesigned for the ideal requirements of mimicking meat, like consistent moisture retention and species-specific texture. In addition, their machinery lacks internal sensing and fiber evaluation, posing problems for consistency and quality control.
Impossible Foods’ products come packaged in thermo-printed overwrap packaging as well as carton and box inkjet printing. The company utilizes sensors to track temperature and get alerts in order to eliminate wastes and maintain product quality ranging from test batches to walk-in freezers. By providing Impossible Foods with an easy way to monitor temperature and expand that monitoring, partner Samsara helps cut down on total carbon emissions. The company automates inspections to ensure that their packaging and quality inspections are perfect.
Distribution and Transportation
Impossible Foods makes a definitive effort to transport their products in an environmentally conscious manner. Impossible Foods factories are all located within the United States, which helps cut down on emissions. The company works with their suppliers to encourage them to use reusable, right-size packaging that minimizes waste. Impossible Foods distributes their products through several major distributors, including DOT Foods and OSI Group, with over 1,000 points of distribution in 2018. Both retailers have a commitment to sustainable food production, and Dot Foods has made significant efforts to reduce their overall carbon footprint. Dot Foods has implemented many emission-lowering changes, such as equipping in-cab heaters to reduce idle time. During transportation, the distributor uses refrigeration control systems and advanced technology, such as variable frequency drive systems, to maximize efficiency. The Impossible Burger is distributed to restaurants through DOT’s expansive network of nine distribution centers in all 50 states. OSI is also concerned with environmental sustainability, stating that they commit to reducing their environmental impact through mitigation activities and responsible stewardship. The company sets high standards for their suppliers and benchmarks their performance with best practices. Impossible Foods isn’t content to remain local, though; the company plans to expand distribution to Asia in 2019 to diminish the continent’s consumption of animal meat.
Use, Re-Use and Maintenance
Because the Impossible Burger is a consumable product, there are few wastes and emissions associated with use. Assuming the burger is prepared using a natural gas cooking appliance with two minutes of preheating time at 350 degrees Fahrenheit and four minutes of additional cooking time, cooking the burger would require approximately 2.965 kWh of electricity. As for wastes produced during consumption, it is difficult to determine how much fecal matter would be produced by consumption of of a single Impossible Burger due to the various factors that influence human digestion. It is likely that most of the calories in the burger would be absorbed by the human body, although this may vary with enzyme composition. Total environmental impact during the use stage can be considered to be negligible.
Recycling
Impossible Burger packaging is composed mainly of plastic and boxboard cardboard. Plastic recycling is typically challenging because of its low density and value. Although Impossible Foods does not reveal the type of plastic used in Impossible Burger packaging, polypropylene is often used in food containers. Polypropylene is typically not recycled because it gets stuck in the sorting equipment in recycling factories. Boxboard boxes are made of plant-based fibers, and are typically recycled by being shredded into tiny pieces. After shredding, the fibers are mixed with water and chemicals to create a slurry substance. This material is then blended with new pulp and taken through a comprehensive filtering process. Cardboard recycling helps reduce the dumping of cardboard waste in landfills, promoting the use of renewable materials.
Waste Management
Impossible Burgers come in environmentally friendly packaging specifically designed to have a negligible contribution to carbon emissions. The product and cardboard used in its packaging are easily biodegradable, and the only part of the Impossible Burger that does not easily biodegrade is its plastic packaging. Polypropylene is a thermoplastic polymer recognized for its strength and heat resistance, and it is not biodegradable.
The company’s Oakland production facility is on track to meet US Green Building Zero Waste standards. Impossible Foods’ manufacturing team is working towards their US Green Business Council Zero Waste Certification, and their Environmental Health and Safety Team is aiming towards 90% average landfill diversion and a suite of waste reduction tactics and training programs. To achieve this certification, members of the Environmental Health and Safety team weigh, record and allocate waste generated by the facility. Impossible Foods’ rate of waste diversion from landfill was between 70% to 90% for most of 2018. However, when the company transitioned to their new Impossible 2.0 recipe, waste that went to landfill spiked because infrastructure and space to hold transition waste wasn’t sufficient. The company lacked staging room, and pick-ups from the municipal waste management company. Nevertheless, the company remains on their path to USGBC certification.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Impossible Foods largely fulfills their mission of producing an environmentally sustainable alternative to traditional meat-based burgers. Although the company does not offer a comprehensive life cycle assessment of their product, other sources provide information about their manufacturing processes and associated wastes. In an age where methane pollution causes one-quarter of global warming, trapping 84 times more heat than carbon dioxide, the Impossible Burger provides a necessary alternative to beef-based burgers.
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