The days with tasteless meatless burgers are over. With modern science, meatless burgers taste like a real patty. Burger King, McDonald’s and even local restaurants such as Gott’s in Palo Alto have added new these new meatless items to their menus.
Beyond Meat, a plant-based food company, soared high when it first when public. Now, the company is worth almost $4 billion. Its competitor, Impossible Foods, has raised over $750 million since it first started. So what exactly has caused the rise of meatless meat?
Celebrities such as Katy Perry and Serena Williams have been promoting these companies on social media. Even if these companies do not pay them, these celebrities have gone out of their way to portray a new message to their fans. These celebrities have been able to steer new customers to try the meatless burgers. In fact, most of Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat’s success comes from omnivore customers rather than vegans or vegetarians.
These companies have been able to create patties that imitate the real thing in taste and texture. Beyond Meat uses pea and beet protein to make it look similar. Impossible Foods uses “heme”, a soy product, to have the patty "bleed". However, as the industry has taken off, there has been debates whether it is more healthy to eat these meatless burgers. Some scientists criticize it, saying that these processed burger products are not necessarily healthy. Although it has less cholesterol and fat, there is almost four times more sodium in the Impossible Burger than a regular burger patty.
Overall, these meatless burgers are a plant-based option that has a similar taste, but with similar amount of calories. As the meatless burger market increases, more are willing to try this new alternative.
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I had no idea that celebrities were promoting products like these, and it's really cool that the companies pay attention to detail so closely. I think that things like the beyond and impossible burgers will also pave the way for a healthier globe, as a lot of methane emissions come from large cow farms.
ReplyDeleteI think that although many of these meatless meat industries have created tasty and more eco-friendly products, there is still work to be done. If we try to obtain a meatless version of our foods at the cost of intaking more sodium, the cost may outweigh the benefits pretty soon. As for the people promoting these products, I doubt a lot of them look beyond the less fat and cholesterol to truly understand the side effects of what they are promoting.
ReplyDeleteThere have been advancements in the creation of these "fake" meats, as many companies, beyond meat has been in the front of the line, begin to splice DNA into bacteria to create the heme protein at a much, much higher rate. If people can get over the "ew" factor of eating food created by bacteria, it would be more efficient and cancel out another main con of this fake meat, the cost.
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