These are the 21 ingredients that make an Impossible Burger look and taste like meat (2024)

FAQs

These are the 21 ingredients that make an Impossible Burger look and taste like meat? ›

Water, soy protein concentrate, coconut oil, sunflower oil, natural flavors, 2% or less of potato protein, methylcellulose, yeast extract, cultured dextrose, food starch modified, soy leghemoglobin, salt, mixed tocopherols (antioxidant), soy protein isolate, zinc gluconate, thiamine hydrochloride (vitamin B1), niacin, ...

You may have heard about the Impossible Burger, a plant-based patty that bleeds and sizzles when it cooks. It's made using an ingredient called haem (or heme, an iron-containing compound that's abundant in animal muscle) and aims to mimic that basic moreish meaty flavour.

Ingredients: Water, Plant Protein (21%) (Soy), Sunflower Oil, Coconut Oil, Thickener (INS 461), Glutamic Acid, Natural Flavours, Cultured Dextrose, Modified Starch, Yeast Extract, Soy Leghemoglobin (genetically modified), Salt, Antioxidant (INS 307b), Vitamins and Minerals (Zinc Gluconate, Niacin (Vitamin B3), Thiamine ...

When examining the ultra-processed ingredients that constitute Impossible meat, including textured soy protein, vegetable oil, GMO yeast waste products, and industrial binding agents, it's fair to conclude that Impossible meat is bad for you.

Soy Leghemoglobin Under Fire in 2015

It is this component that makes the Impossible Foods appear to bleed like meat when cut and give it the meaty taste. Prior to the “rat feeding study” the FDA initially refused to sign off on the safety of SLH. The results of the study determined that there was cause for concern.

It's called the Impossible Burger and it looks, feels, tastes and smells like ground beef, even though it's made entirely of plants. It's all thanks to science and genetically engineered yeast.

That said, there are a few notable differences: Beyond has significantly less saturated fat than both ground beef and Impossible Burger. That's the “bad” fat associated with heart disease and inflammation, according to the Centers for Disease Control, so less is more in this case.

With that definition in mind, some people do not regard the Impossible Burger as suitable for a vegan diet. The plant-based heme was tested on laboratory rats, and while Brown says every care was taken to make the trials humane, animal testing of any kind is explicitly a form of exploitation.

If you've ever bitten into an Impossible Burger, you've likely been pretty blown away by just how meaty it is. How can a burger made from plants, with zero animal products, taste that close to a real beef patty? Well, according to Impossible Foods, the answer is in one key ingredient: heme.

Our products are processed by mixing carefully selected ingredients, derived from plants or by fermentation, to create something unique and delicious. Impossible Foods' mission is to use the key components of meat (protein, fat, and flavor) more efficiently and sustainably than animals can.

What is the healthiest meat substitute? ›

U.S. consumers' doubts about the health of plant-based meat – fed partly by advertising from the meat industry – has been a consistent problem. The outgoing Beyond Burger contains 25 percent of the recommended daily intake of saturated fat, for example, and 17 percent of the recommended intake of sodium.

While the burger is plant-based and avoids the cholesterol found in animal products, it does contain a variety of ingredients that can promote inflammation in the body. These include soy protein isolate, which is highly processed and can trigger an immune response in some individuals.

Give the Impossible Meat a sniff and pay attention to any off-putting odors. If it has a strong, unpleasant smell similar to rotten eggs or ammonia, it is a clear sign of spoilage. These odors indicate the presence of harmful bacteria or other microorganisms that have multiplied in the meat.

Heme is found in a protein called hemoglobin that is found in every living plant and animal, and is something we've been eating since the dawn of humanity. This ingredient not only makes Impossible Burgers taste like meat, but helps them stay juicy, moist, and slightly red at the center.

Impossible Foods was founded by Patrick O. Brown in 2011. In July 2016, the company launched its first meat analogue product, the Impossible Burger, which is made from material derived from plants.

Using heating, cooling, and pressure, we create the fibrous texture of meat from plant-based proteins. Then, we mix in fats, minerals, fruit and vegetable-based colors, natural flavors, and carbohydrates to replicate the appearance, juiciness, and flavor of meat.

Frequently, natural flavorings, spices, and yeast extracts are sprinkled in that mimic the “real meat” flavor. Now, when it comes to the widely popular Impossible Burger, its bold essence is really up-leveled by heme — an iron-containing molecule that “impossibly” mimics authentic beef.

The taste component comes from the inclusion of Leghemoglobin made from GMO yeast. Heme, which is found in hemoglobin and myoglobin, is the iron based molecule that give meat its distinctive taste. What makes Beyond Meat and Impossible burgers different from traditional veggie burgers? They taste better.

Meat flavor is composed of a complex mixture of volatile compounds developed as a result of heat driven multi-directional reactions. Typical reactions include Maillard reaction, lipid oxidation, as well as nitrogenous compounds degradation.