Impossible Foods has raised $75M for its plant-based burgers

https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/01/impossible-foods-just-raised-75-million-for-its-plant-based-burgers

by janober • 9 years ago

261 257 9 years ago

techcrunch.com

tkyjonathan• 9 years ago

Pretty cool

concinds6• 9 years ago

Soy

I wonder how the community here will respond to this. Most here seemed upset by the male-infertility story from a week or two ago. Turning around to gush over soy would be completely incoherent.

"Soy as health food" is diabolically false.

ZenoArrow4• 9 years ago

"Most here seemed upset by the male-infertility story from a week or two ago."

Do you have a link to that story?

concinds6• 9 years ago

Actually only 6 days ago.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14855796

koverda• 9 years ago

This seems to be one molecule from the soy plant.

concinds6• 9 years ago

No, this burger contains both soy leghemoglobin and soy protein isolate. I assume you thought I was referring only to the first one.

cbhl2• 9 years ago

Their "soy leghemoglobin" doesn't come from soy though. It comes from GMO Algae. Presumably they could reprogram that algae to produce a different hemoglobin-like molecule.

concinds6• 9 years ago

Check the ingredients list:

Full Ingredient List:
Water, Textured Wheat Protein, Coconut Oil, Potato Protein, Natural Flavors, 2% or less of: Leghemoglobin (soy), Yeast Extract, Salt, Soy Protein Isolate, Konjac Gum, Xanthan Gum, Thiamin (Vitamin B1), Zinc, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12.
Contains:
Soy, Wheat

This contains soy. My comment stands.

dang2• 9 years ago

Of course HN is 'completely incoherent'. So is any real sample of millions of people.

twelvechairs3• 9 years ago

Tofu/soy burgers have been around for >20 years already. How is this significantly different?

[Edit: way to be downvoted instantly for asking a serious critical question. Remember when hn prided itself on a higher level of discussion than reddit?]

ZenoArrow4• 9 years ago

To give you some idea of what's different:

http://youtu.be/ebNeUihciDI

twelvechairs3• 9 years ago

Thanks for the response. I would think that 'thier aim is to produce burgers that taste exactly like ground beef' or similar could fit in the article.

acchow6• 9 years ago

It tastes much better than tofu/soy burgers of the last 20 years.

hn_throwaway_99• 9 years ago

OK, I'll help explain why I downvoted you. It probably would have taken you less time to google "impossible foods burger" than to write your question. More importantly, by starting of your question the way you did, you seem to be implying, intentionally or not, some level of smugness that "don't these guys know soy burgers have been around for 20 years."

Here is the Impossible Foods FAQ: https://www.impossiblefoods.com/faq/

twelvechairs3• 9 years ago

I read the article. It didnt say. I even googled leghemoglobin and found that its in all soy/tofu, so that didnt seem a differentiator. I expect other people here will have the same question

Honestly yes if you cant be clear what your business does where others have failed IMO at the very least your marketing team is failing

dang2• 9 years ago

The HN guidelines ask you not to go on about downvotes, so would you please not? However low the discussion quality is, this always makes it worse.

jy1• 9 years ago

Tried it, tastes. OK. A bit like meat, smells a bit like a barn.

L_Rahman3• 9 years ago

I remember reading the original impressions of the Impossible Foods ground meat and thinking it was just media buzz.

I promise you it is not.

At Momofuku's Ssam Bar in the East Village of NYC, you can order an off menu item called Spicy Pork Sausage and Rice Cakes. It's not really off the menu - the item has simply been around so long and is so well known to regulars that they left it off to make room for new dishes.

I've had it more times than I count.

At lunch time however, they serve Spicy "Impossible Sausage" and Rice Cakes. The first time I ordered it, I was ready to complain about one of my favorite things ruined by a hyped product.

But then I took my first bite, and it somehow tasted better than the pork sausage version. I've been back many times since and the Impossible Foods version of the dish is often tastier than the pork version.

Let that sink in for a moment. Impossible Foods was able to replace high quality pork sausage served in a beloved dish at one of New York's buzziest restaurants and make the dish better.

The vast majority of ground meat in the American food chain is of lower quality. If Impossible Foods can replace that ground meat at scale, the ramifications are enormous. They will reduce by a huge margin the number of animal lives and quantity of CO2 necessary to feed us.

acchow6• 9 years ago

I tried the Impossible Meats burger - it was nowhere near as tasty as a beef burger. I think it could be improved drastically by just adding a little MSG tho.

dmoy• 9 years ago

Time to bust out that jar of msg then, or just eat it with seaweed instead of lettuce or something.

mmanfrin2• 9 years ago

Most burgers are improved with MSG, it is a miracle salt.

killjoywashere2• 9 years ago

A friend in LA got my brother and I to try impossible burgers (he's pescatarian, I'm vegawarian): we agreed it was not that great.

venantius3• 9 years ago

I also had the Impossible burger and was not impressed - to me, it was too greasy, and didn't have any real flavor of its own. I would not order it again for pretty much any reason - I actively disliked eating it.

mikekchar2• 9 years ago

I just want to point out that there are lots of ways to get umami. MSG is just one of them (and not really a great way IMHO).

I cooked vegan at home for a long time (I'm not actually an ethical vegan, I just like vegan food). Konbu dashi will give you similar glutamate profiles, but tomatoes, fermented products like shoyu and miso, etc are simple ways to boost the umami as well. Usually the biggest trick in good vegan food is to understand how to balance all of the flavours. Meat based cooking has so many savoury flavours, and if you simply cut out the meat, you end up with overly sweet/sour dishes. They lack depth. If you're designing a dish and you are waiting until the end to figure out how to get the umami in (for example, by adding MSG), then you're really not going to succeed most of the time IMHO. If I want a savoury dish, umami is where I start.

Having said that, I've never made a vegan burger style dish that I've thought was particularly good. I've had some excellent vegan dishes like that at restaurants and I've always wondered how they did it. Since MSG triggers migraines in me, I'm pretty sure it wasn't MSG :-)

billyshih• 9 years ago

Do they still offer the sausage? I'd love to try it when I visit NYC.

leovander• 9 years ago

I think the way it breaks a part has always made me lean towards it being served as a bbq pulled pork slider. I didn't think about how it would taste as a "sausage".

codq• 9 years ago

I live literally a block away from Ssam bar--I'll be going in tomorrow for lunch to try this out. Thanks for the tip!

L_Rahman3• 9 years ago

I'm afraid they've taken the Impossible Foods version off the menu :(

They do they same pork version at both lunch and dinner now. I'll ask why they switched next time I stop by.

Aside: I too live very close to Ssam Bar and would be happy to get a coffee in the neighborhood. If you're interested, contact info is in my profile.

tptacek3• 9 years ago

This is a neat comment, but as someone who's been to a couple different Momofuku places (incl. Ssam Bar) but never had that dish: how heavily spiced is it? The dish is inspired (simultaneously) by Mapo Tofu and Bolognese --- it's supposed to literally be Ssam Bar's take on Mapo Tofu --- which suggests to me that the quality of the pork is probably not all that important to the overall dish.

A good hamburger, on the other hand, relies almost entirely on the flavor of the beef.

There's an informal rule in cooking about how the simpler a dish is, the better your ingredients and technique have to be, because there's nothing to hide behind.

jjeaff• 9 years ago

That really depends on the type of burger. Occasionally, I enjoy a good In n Out Burger. I don't expect their meat quality is particularly good.

"Patty melt" style burgers are generally less reliant on meat quality as long as you can get a good, crunchy, umami seat on the thin mean patty or patties.

I suspect the thicker higher end style burgers would be more reliant on the quality of the beef.

However, for economic reasons, they are probably the necessary target of impossible meat until they reach a scale large enough to compete with cheap beef.

L_Rahman3• 9 years ago

You're absolutely correct.

1. It's unlikely that Impossible Foods will ever match the quality of a grass-fed, grain-finished 80/20 chuck + short rib blend from a purveyor like Pat LaFrieda.

2. The dish is heavily spiced and the Impossible Foods product is playing the role of the bolognese. It can hide under the seasoning and spices.

3. I still think the product is valuable. The vast majority of meat product Americans consume meets a much lower bar. I think Impossible Foods already makes a product that's better than the ground meat that goes into a lot of fast food chains. If you didn't tell people, I suspect they'd prefer a Taco Bell or White Castle product made with Impossible Foods instead of the "mix" that they currently use.

shanev9• 9 years ago

How do you know for that sure it will reduce the number of animal lives and reduce CO2? Farming the plants needed to produce this fake meat takes up land, potentially (and most likely) more land needed to produce equal amounts of meat.

Unless they are running a completely solar operation and managing their farms using a system of rotational grazing that sequesters CO2, they most certainly are emitting it.

I see this as only mildly better than CAFOs. Employing holistic management techniques is still the best, and unfortunately, under appreciated way to produce meat in an ethical, sustainable way that also generates new fertile soil and sequesters carbon/methane as a side effect.

Taek• 9 years ago

Are you sure? Cows eat plants. The footprint from cows is largely due to the fact that you need 14 pounds of grain per pound of cow, if I remember correctly. Unless these burgers are somehow taking 14 pounds of grain to produce per pound of burger, I think we're in a better place.

That said, eliminating cows I still don't think will help the environment. That freed up land will be bought and used for some other purpose. It's natural capitalism. If you want to fix the environment, you need heavy penalities / taxes for nonsustainable resource usage. That's the only way.

aaronblohowiak• 9 years ago

potentially (and most likely) more land needed to produce equal amounts of meat

Please explain this in more detail.

and sequesters carbon/methane as a side effect

I have not heard of a farming practice that sequesters methane released from ruminants. Can you provide more information?

venantius3• 9 years ago

I've studied the amount of energy and water necessary to produce beef extensively, both at university and professionally, and I can say from experience that it would be extremely difficult for something like the impossible burger to consume more energy and water than the equivalent amount of actual meat.

Meat is expensive in energy and water because it takes huge amounts of vegetable matter and water for a period of _years_ to get to a point where it's consumable; by contrast, said vegetable matter can be produced in typically less than one year.

jinjin2• 9 years ago

Farming the plants needed to produce this fake meat takes up land, potentially (and most likely) more land needed to produce equal amounts of meat.

And it will often take up land that is more fertile, and as such has a higher biodiversity cost, than what is needed for grazing animals (which can be done on land more barren or harder to farm).

It is often forgotten that you can herd animals in ways that coexist with the rest of the ecosystem, while farming plant based food (especially products like grains or soy) requires you to raze all existing life in the area you wish to use for farmland reducing it to a monoculture with no room for diversity.

(But it should be made clear that this only counts for grazing animals. Industrial meat production where you feed the animals grains gives you the worst of both worlds).

bamboozled• 9 years ago

When visiting Europe I had a similar experience with "Seitan" [1] based sausages.

I quickly realised that what I like most about sausages isn't really the animal fat / flesh, it's the wheat, barley and or other spices + salt fried in oil that I enjoy. I should also add the texture which was easily reproduced with Seitan.

Also I found Seitan cheese burgers to be really, really good.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_gluten_(food)

mtanski• 9 years ago

I've felt like vegetarian hot dogs tasted the same (indistinguishable) or better as regular hot dogs for a while now.

I'm a little more skeptical of "pork" substitutes simply because lard makes everything taste better. Split pea soup vs split pea soup with coppa. Regular pie crust vs lard crust. Plain pizza vs with prosciutto. Risotto vs risotto w pork fat (or goose fat). For all of these there's no contest (for me).

felixchan6• 9 years ago

Impossible Burgers contain heme iron, which is disastrous to the body.

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-safety-of-heme-vs-non-h...

nemild• 9 years ago

Am I right in thinking that all forms of meat contain heme iron? And in what dosage is this "disastrous" to the body?

felixchan6• 9 years ago

Maybe "disastrous" is the wrong word.

"An increase in heme iron intake of 1mg/day appeared to be significantly associated with a 27% increase in risk of CHD" according to one study.

saagarjha2• 9 years ago

Forgive me if I don't quite find your source credible, since it appears to have been written by a volunteer, and since it doesn't actually give concrete evidence on maximum recommended dose.

felixchan6• 9 years ago

The source is just screenshots of academic studies.

loeg3• 9 years ago

nutritionfacts.org is vegan propaganda and shouldn't be confused with a good source.

Nutritional science is hard and we have very limited ability to actually study it and make strong recommendations. Cherry-picking phrases and results from limited power studies just muddies the waters.

Here's the founder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Greger

In his lectures, videos, and writings about nutrition he tries to persuade people to change their eating habits from a Western pattern diet to a whole foods, plant-based, healthy diet—optimally to vegan diet—and says that such a diet can prevent and reverse many chronic diseases.
Retired physician Harriet A. Hall ... has written that ... Greger often overstates the known benefits of such a diet as well as the harm caused by eating animal products (for example, in a talk he claimed that a single meal rich in animal products can "cripple" one's arteries), and he sometimes does not discuss evidence that contradicts his strong claims.

"Disastrous" is clearly a gross overstatement.

acchow6• 9 years ago

What meat doesn't contain heme iron?

felixchan6• 9 years ago

None. That's why meat is unhealthy.

Veratyr2• 9 years ago

An unbiased explanation of the differences: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iron-HealthProfessional/

I really can't be bothered watching the video but I had a look at the first article it "quotes" (https://www.mja.com.au/system/files/issues/196_10_040612_sup...). The video says:

"no more likely to suffer from iron deficiency anaemia than non-vegetarians"

But has actually deliberately erased the context (it uses the same PDF, the rest has been whited out in the screenshot):

"[In Western countries like Australia, where we enjoy a varied food supply,] vegetarians are no more likely to suffer from iron deficiency anaemia than non-vegetarians."

And shamelessly cherry picked:

"but a number of studies suggest that vegetarians are at greater risk of having low iron stores (as reflected by serum ferritin)."

So I'm going to suggest that people not pay this video much mind.

xellisx• 9 years ago

And no links to studies?

bllguo• 9 years ago

Haven't tried it but certainly a noble cause, I hope they succeed.

“I love VCs and particularly the ones that invested in us,” Brown had said. “But it’s truly astonishing how little diligence they do in terms of the actual science that underlies some tech companies.”

Recent headlines on Theranos, Juicero, uBeam really drive this point home

jessriedel• 9 years ago

Talking to VC firm who was considering an investment in a quantum computing company, I was also blown away by how little science they attempted to understand. It doesn't make any sense to me. My best explanation is that they think it's simply impossible to become well-informed at a reasonable price, and instead just rely on aligning the interests of the founders with their own.

nicpottier2• 9 years ago

I tried a Beyond Burger, which I believe is the main other horse in this "veggie burger" race and I was pretty impressed. It doesn't have the "plant blood" that seems to be Impossible's secret sauce, but on a bun, with ketchup, lettuce and tomato I thought it was pretty great. Great enough that I'd order it instead of a normal burger if it was widely available.

HillaryBriss5• 9 years ago

how did the cost compare to meat?

paulcole• 9 years ago

Environmental, ethical, or dollar cost?

nicpottier2• 9 years ago

I think the patties were sold in pairs at Whole Foods for about $8, so $4 a piece. Kind of steep but in a world where people pay $9 a serving for BlueApron seems competitive enough.

jmcgough2• 9 years ago

We keep beyond burgers stocked at my place in the east bay. Delicious, and not that much more expensive than good ground beef.

sputknick• 9 years ago

I'm paleo, and wanted to try it to see how it tastes. Closer than I expected to a real burger. Not great, but this would be an excellent replacement for factory farmed animals. Not as tasty, or as good for the environment as pasture raised cows.

acchow6• 9 years ago

Not as good for the environment as pasture raised cows.

Even at scale?

saalweachter• 9 years ago

Eh, depends what you mean by "scale".

When you start talking environmentally sustainable meat production, you're talking about utilizing land and calories that would not be well utilized otherwise. Pastureland that is too rocky or arid for grain or vegetable production, grazed at a level that is sustainable for that land. Food waste and mast you can feed to pigs or goats but not people.

Scale is "a whole lot of meat" but "not much as Americans eat now".

nathancahill• 9 years ago

Any time you see "good for the environment" and "cows" in the same sentence, stop reading.

aphextron• 9 years ago

What is it with first-world vegans/vegetarians wanting to eat these extremely processed imitation meat frozen foods? There is an entire tradition of vegetarian cuisine around the world from Rasta Ital, to Hindu Sattvic, Afghani, and Thai which you could learn with just a tiny bit of effort.

misterbwong• 9 years ago

Is this rhetorical or are you actually wondering why someone would want meatless substitutes for foods that they (used to) enjoy?

marcbernstein• 9 years ago

There's room for both. The vast majority of my meals are from Indian, Mexican, Thai, etc. recipes but occasionally I get the craving for a good burger. I've had some pretty good and a lot of not so good veggie patties, and although I'd only envision myself eating one of these every few months, I'm still excited to see what they came up with.

Edit: To note that I've only been a vegetarian for about 8 years (or around a 20-25% of my life), so definitely get the occasional craving for foods I used to enjoy in the past.

corysama• 9 years ago

I think the goal is more to transition omnivores away from meat. There is a consensus that the meat industry in unsustainable as is. But, there is also a strong belief that trying to convince the world they don't want meat via rational arguments is futile. Thus, we need work-arounds via either plants that mimic meat or changing the meat industry over to vat-brewed meat.

hug• 9 years ago

trying to convince the world they don't want meat via rational arguments is futile

Of course it is, because it should be pretty obvious that they do want meat. If they didn't want meat you wouldn't be having the argument in the first place, right?

I've never tried a real honest to god direct replacement for meat that I actually was fooled -- even for a moment -- into thinking might actually be meat. I've had some delicious vegetarian dishes, I've had some delicious vegan dishes, but those things definitely just aren't the same experience as eating meat. Tofurkey just don't cut it.

Which isn't to say that I'm not open to the idea of having a 1:1 lab-made replacement for meat that is indistinguishable from the real thing. I most definitely am. If you could provide me with lab-meat at even just a small premium I'd probably go vegetarian where that option was available.

But boy do I love me some meat-or-indistinguishable-from-meat products in my meals.

HillaryBriss5• 9 years ago

An important component of the pitch to omnivores is price. If the price is low enough, it becomes an easier sell.

But very often the prices on these vegetarian meat substitute products is the same or higher than the comparable meat product. I think that's because the food system, and various subsidies to "big meat", make meat unnaturally cheap.

arkh• 9 years ago

Mimicking is exactly how you get omnivores to not try your product.

You'd like me to try vegan food? Make real vegan cuisine with its own flavors and consistency. Don't try to make fake meat, I won't eat vegan to taste something meat-like. I'll eat it for good tasting vegetables and fruits.

wes-k• 9 years ago

Generally I prefer meals that are naturally vegan. In certain social situations these types of substitutes are helpful. Additionally, if it allows for more "meatless Monday's" or lowers the bar to eat more vegan, I'm all for it!

ceph_2• 9 years ago

People enjoy eating certain foods. Having options that allow you to replicate a certain taste without having to kill something is desirable to people who have gone veg.

There's also the aspects of food as a culture or social participation. People want to be able to participate in things like BBQs or eat out at restaurants with friends.

acomjean2• 9 years ago

without having to kill something

I think even vegans/vegetarians have to acknowledge they are killing plants to eat. I suspect the better for environment/health argument is more prevalent (why I eat little meat).

At some point somethings going to have to die to feed yourself (until we can gene edit photosynthesis into humans..). I take some consolation that I'll be feeding bacteria when I'm gone.

icanhackit• 9 years ago

As a vegetarian who regularly makes curries from scratch, from soaking the lentils to grinding my own spices from whole seeds/pods and grilling paneer in tandoori paste, I can say it doesn't hurt to have the option when you've feel like having a burger, and it's a good way for people who want to make the switch to vegetarianism to know that their favourite junk foods are still an option.

reycharles• 9 years ago

Why do you soak the lentils?

acchow6• 9 years ago

This is actually for meat eaters.

jerknextdoor• 9 years ago

I'm not sure that the real target is vegans/vegetarians. I don't eat, nor desire, that many of these substitutes and neither do the friends I've had for 20+ years of this diet. I believe these products are more for people who aren't committed to making a full lifestyle change, but just want to have 'meatless Mondays' or the like.

nhangen• 9 years ago

Not everyone has the time or interest. I'd rather go out than cook a meal.

schoen• 9 years ago

I've learned that Chinese vegetarians also want to eat them, and mock meats are quite a staple of a lot of Chinese vegetarian cooking. (But indeed not of the other cuisines that you mention.)

grogenaut• 9 years ago

why does anyone want to try new foods... to try new foods and to have diversity of options.

pweissbrod• 9 years ago

I love meat. Especially fried chicken. I was raised on it. But I only eat in in the condition someone else is throwing away scraps. Its a moral thing. Cant I be vegetarian for moral choices without acting like I'm above the taste of meat?

My wife is coming around too and you know what? Foods like this are the gateway drug for those of us born and raised on meat to change our ways (should you want to... if you want to continue to eat meat that is your path in life to take!)

PerfectElement3• 9 years ago

For the same reason people eat processed meat: taste. If processing plants can make them taste better for some people, then what's the big deal? It looks like you are trying to associate processed foods with "first world vegans/vegetarians".

mikekchar2• 9 years ago

Hey, I like vegan food a lot, but it's not like "extremely processed imitation meat" foods haven't been part of vegan culture for a long time. Go to a tofu restaurant in Japan and take a look at what they do to yuba. As for the frozen part, vegans have traditionally had to cook virtually everything they ate in the first world. There has not historically been a lot of convenience food. The last 20 years or so, it's grown a lot, but it is still dwarfed by the more traditional convenience food. Especially in big cities in the west, if I want a prepared vegan take-away, then it is usually a million times better to get one from one of the tiny restaurants that are the advantage of having nice multi-cultural societies.

But there is one last reason for the "I can't believe it's not a dead animal!"-burger/dog: Culturually, people invite you to barbeques. If you show up with your Shoujin ryouri bentou, people look down on you and tell you that you're stuck up. If you show up with an eggplant and a hot dog bun, they won't call you stuck up, but they will reasonably say, "You're really going to grill an eggplant and stick it in a hotdog bun? That's why vegan food is so sad". (BTW, that actually sounds good to me :-) ).

Yes, vegans want to go to barbeques and fit in and not have to explain why they decided not to eat meat. Sometimes they just want a normal western cultural experience without having to compromise on their principles. Sometimes they grew up with this kind of food and they are feeling nostalgic. There are huge numbers of reasons why people do these kinds of things and why it is a big deal to them.

And yes, they should learn about cuisines that are culturally vegetarian for many, many reasons as well. Most do even if they also eat processed vegetable protein in a package.

lawik• 9 years ago

Appreciate how you illustrate the different aspects. I can take being the odd one out every now and then as a vegan. I'm aware that my choice places me in an odd spot from time to time. But it can be so good to not stick out sometimes. Whether it is that you have nice convenience food that can be handled just like the original or a taste that you thought you had given up or a social event where your food doesn't even register as weird.

And I believe these imitations really do help a lot of people make the transition either away from meat or towards less meat. Which I see as a good thing.

spraak4• 9 years ago

That's a great suggestion, and what I do as a vegan (mostly I eat beans and rice). But I believe things like this are developed in response to current cuisine, e.g. meat burgers. That people don't want to give up that taste and want a way to maintain their current desires for taste. I admit that I still enjoy e.g. a Beyond Burger occasionally for that reason.

puranjay2• 9 years ago

Indian vegetarian food is great (I'm Indian). But its biggest problem is the lack of any "solid" food or texture (which is why you see raw onion on every Indian dinner plate - to give the necessary crunch to dal-rice).

Broken_Hippo• 9 years ago

I do eat some of these foods. And foods from elsewhere. the truth is this: Sometimes I want a different texture. Or something my mother made growing up. It already takes a bit of doing (immigrant, so different ingredients). Artificial meat helps me make the texture more similar to what I remember.

Also, more options for variety and stuff.

newscracker3• 9 years ago

It's not a first world phenomenon alone. For most people around the world, the food they've grown up with is almost part of their identity and also a comfort factor. It's one reason why many people have real struggles, with themselves, when wanting to change their food habits and give up what they're used to. One might argue that people being stuck to certain things sounds silly, but it's the reality around. To have large scale change, we need such alternatives.

nostromo• 9 years ago

I'm happy to see that fat and protein are the main ingredients.

http://impossiblefoods.com/images/faq/nutrition-facts.png

A lot of veggie imitation meats are low on fat and protein and extremely high on processed carbs.

resf• 9 years ago

Wow, do nutrition labels in USA generally not show figures per 100g?

mmanfrin2• 9 years ago

No, and it's really obnoxious, because there are thresholds where content doesn't have to be listed. For example, a package of tic-tacs will say that it has 0g sugar per serving (a 'serving' being one tic-tac), but the whole (small) package will have something like 20g of sugar.

Terribledactyl• 9 years ago

It's either a seemingly random measure or, if in a single serving container, the total calories.

wott• 9 years ago

We should consider ourselves lucky they used grams at all and not their fancy units.

adrianmonk2• 9 years ago

It's per serving.

Obviously, it's easier to compare if they are all relative to 100g, but arguably per-serving is more useful when making eating decisions. When I'm buying a food, I'm not trying to do science; I'm trying to figure out how much of a particular nutrient I'm personally going to get when I eat that item.

For example, if I have soup, there's no way I'll have as little as 100g of it. If I have tea, there's no way I'm going to have as much as 100g of tea leaves. The mass of a serving could be 1 or even 2 orders of magnitude different depending on the type of food.

Serving sizes are required by law to be "based on amounts of foods and beverages that people are actually eating" (see https://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocument... ).

HillaryBriss5• 9 years ago

interesting. FWIW, here's the ingredients list for the Beyond Meat burger:

water, pea protein isolate, oil blend (canola oil, flaxseed oil, palmoil, sunflower oil, dha algal oil), methylcellulose, carrageenan, potassium bicarbonate, caramel color†, yeast extract, maltodextrin, potassium chloride, tapioca starch, sorbitol, calcium chloride, natural flavoring, spices, salt, vegetable extract mix (spinach, broccoli, carrot, tomato, beet, shiitake mushroom), l-cysteine hydrochloride, beetjuice powder (flavor and color), natural hickory smoke concentrate, calcium sulfate, onion powder, onion extract, mesquite powder, sugar‡, pomegranate seed powder, ferric phosphate (iron), paprika extract (spice and color), garlic extract, cyanocobalamin (vitamin b12)

pkaye2• 9 years ago

I wish they would list the phosphorus contents. I'm on dialysis and require high protein requirements every day but must restrict phosphorus. If I knew this number I could better account for it in my diet. Unfortunately phosphorus is not required in current labeling requirements.

mtl_usr2• 9 years ago

That's a shame.

Curious, how do you normally figure out the phosphorus content ? Is there a guideline somewhere that gives you an adequate estimate ?

mtl_usr2• 9 years ago

A lot of veggie imitation meats are low on fat and protein and extremely high on processed carbs.

Which makes them pretty bad, even worst for dieting.

petre• 9 years ago

If you add up the percentages the total amounts to 40%. I wonder what's the rest.

Luc2• 9 years ago

Water

ThePadawan• 9 years ago

I'm glad as well - I've found that even seemingly similar products by different brands will wildly vary in carb/protein content.

I could go grab two brands of non-meat burger patty off the shelves right now, and one will be 25% carbs, and one 6%. It's ridiculous.

brohoolio3• 9 years ago

I've tried it. It's good.

At $16 a pound I'd much rather get some high quality meat or fish. If it comes down in price to something reasonable I might add it to our rotation.

seanp2k2• 9 years ago

What kind of high-quality fish are you getting for $16/lb? In the Bay Area at least, high-quality salmon is about twice that.

brohoolio3• 9 years ago

I'm in the Midwest. Hamburger meat is like $2 a pound. Fancy salmon / tuna $10-$15 a pound.

loeg3• 9 years ago

I'd take farmed salmon at $10/lb over mock hamburger.

ClassyJacket• 9 years ago

16USD per pound, which is 44AUD or 35USD per KG, thankyou Wolfram, is high, but considering the environmental and ethical advantages it's almost miraculous. That's just about dead on 5x what I pay for chicken breast now, so it's not at all crazy to imagine splurging on this once in a while for a meal with a vegan friend, and that the price will come down to a mass-market, regular purchase level in the not-so-distant future.

Much like how a Tesla Model 3 isn't as cheap as a Corolla, but still not completely out of the question for alot of people like a Model S is.

Even if it settles at double the price of meat I could see myself buying it regularly. Given how unethically meat is produced now, I don't mind accepting some price increase.

brohoolio3• 9 years ago

I guess I'm used to my friends picking out more affordable options. I might spend extra occasionally because my wife is a vegetarian but I can't see any of my friends selecting it at this price, even at $8 a pound.

notfromhere2• 9 years ago

Until it reaches parity with ground beef, I don't expect to see it outside the Whole Foods-range of grocery stores

tomjen3• 9 years ago

Agreed. Seriously it should be magnitudes cheaper than real meat (since it is plants and presumably not as nutritious), not more expensive.

throwaway2016a• 9 years ago

I am extremely eager to see lab grown meat more so than I am eager to see better meat substitutes become mainstream.

However, being a meat eater, since the news of this product came out however many months and years it was, I have been wanting to try it. Which is more than I can say for other meat substitutes.

spraak4• 9 years ago

It's hard for me to understand the excitement for lab meat. Can you explain your interest?

puranjay2• 9 years ago

Meat minus the guilt. A more moral meat, if you will.

I can get behind the idea. I can't morally justify eating one animal, loving another.

sdrothrock• 9 years ago

Reproducibility of particularly good strains of meat.

SmellyGeekBoy• 9 years ago

Better control over the quality and consistency of the end product? I enjoy a wagyu steak a lot more than a tough cheap cut or minced up eyelids and connective tissue.

sneak2• 9 years ago

It is less resource intensive to produce. Hand-tuned assembly code burger vs transpiled javascript for the hot path (I eat cheeseburgers very often, as do many, many others in the countries I frequent).

You can feed more people with the same amount of resources. 80,000 humans a day die from lack of food. Everything we can do to meaningfully improve food production efficiency is a big win for the species.

newscracker3• 9 years ago

Not GP, but I'm excited about "clean meat" because I believe it has the best chance, over time, to have a huge impact on reducing animal suffering and reducing the environmental damage currently caused by animal agriculture. It'll probably be a lot better for human health too, since controlling what's in it will improve with a higher probability of success.

simplify4• 9 years ago

I'm very skeptical of the benefits of lab-grown meat. It might taste the same, but I don't see how it can have all the same nutrition as an actual animal breaking down good plants with a real digestive system.

We hardly know a thing about what's good for our bodies. I doubt scientists will be able to produce a food that won't hurt us somehow in the long run.

asciimo• 9 years ago

I love this video of Adam Savage trying the Impossible Burger at Jardinière. Gets into the details of how they prepare it compared to their standard burger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF9bf9uKQQk

asah• 9 years ago

I'm a fan and as a 3-time food+tech entrepreneur, imho they're going to be very successful.

I'm an omnivore, love burgers. I also love veg burgers, but they're not burgers -- they're something else, the way salmon burgers and fried chicken sandos are great but don't count when you want a "beef burger."

The Impossible Burger was the first burger I tried (Jardiniere in SF) that my brain said, "yes, this is a burger". In fact, it was close enough that... it was boring. I could eat it every day and if beef burgers were taken away from me, I wouldn't notice or reminisce.

The next step is to make the raw IB meat available in grocery, so I can experiment myself - load up the umami, mix in spices, stuff it with cheese, try it with different levels of done-ness, etc.

ugh123• 9 years ago

Has any thought been given to the long-term economic consequences of something like this replacing animal products in the market? The price of commodity corn shot up when production of corn-based ethanol became popular as well as other uses of corn.

I'm not sure if the agricultural industry would be ready to support a large shift towards this very easily.

AntonyGarand• 9 years ago

It actually requires a lot less lands to make a plant-based burger than a beef-based one, as you're skipping a whole ladder in the chain.

I believe the ratio is between 6 and 8 times less land for beef, although you should definetly research this number if you're interested.

This makes plant-based burger and vegetarian/vegan foods a lot more eco-friendly and requires less land to produce, which is a problem most developped countries are facing

PerfectElement3• 9 years ago

If something like this replaces animal products, the demand for grains would drastically fall. Is this the economic consequence you are worried about?

EGreg• 9 years ago

But will it be Kosher? :)

ericdykstra• 9 years ago

Going to stay away from this, myself. For the same reason I eat oranges instead of drinking Sunny Delight and eat sausage rather than eat sausage-flavored potato chips.

Flavor is our evolved way of our bodies telling us what our body wants to eat. "Impossible burgers" are just a simulation of food.

maxerickson2• 9 years ago

Sausage isn't really very natural.

There is a fun analogy with Sunny Delight, with the use of cheap inputs and lots of flavoring.

ceejayoz• 9 years ago

Flavor is our evolved way of our bodies telling us what our body wants to eat.

We don't really live the way we evolved to live, though. I can get the high calorie foods hunter gatherers sought out to see them through lean times delivered to me at my house while I sit around in my underwear.

yotmeha• 9 years ago

The last three paragraphs of this article are a bit awkward.

mceoin• 9 years ago

Tried it, liked it. Best vegetarian burger of my life.

lamby• 9 years ago

Sam Harris did a good interview with this outfit:

https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/meat-without-murder

jochakovsky• 9 years ago

Tried an Impossible Burger for the first time the other day. In a burger with lots of condiments and toppings, it was OK, but not something I'd order again. When I took a bite of it by itself, it tasted like cat food.

Since there are so many positive reviews, I wonder if it just wasn't prepared correctly? The restaurant had only started serving it a few days earlier.

prostoalex• 9 years ago

I tried one at Umami Burger and left with the same general impression as you. It was bland by itself, saved by copious melted cheese Umami Burger serves it with, and did not have any of the nice pink associated with medium-rare. I guess it's comparable to a fast food burger, but does not seem like anything I'd want to repeat. The sugars and vegetable oils listed on the ingredients list make me wonder if the whole thing is even healthy.

shanev9• 9 years ago

Does anyone know what the omega 6:3 ratio of this fake meat is?

joshdance• 9 years ago

I am excited to try the Impossible Foods burger. Waiting for it to come to Utah.

epalmer• 9 years ago

Nutrition panel is in the FAQ https://www.impossiblefoods.com/faq/

awkwarddaturtle2• 9 years ago

Is it just me or do posts about "vegetarian/vegan" foods, Tesla, or any flavor of the day seem to produce so many suspicious comments?

It looks every other comment is trying to "sell" us something rather than being regular honest commenting. Reminds me of evangelicals or jehovah's witnesses trying to sell me their religion.

Maybe knowing how social media works now has got me cynical.

I'll never become vegetarian and I'll stay an omnivore til I die. It's great that they were able to raise money and hopefully they'll open up options for the vegetarians crowd. But please stop with the Impossible Foods is going to save the world stuff.

Tesla going to save the world. Impossible Foods is going to save the world. Jesus is going to save the world. Goodness.

b_ttercup2• 9 years ago

Probably just you. This product is indeed capable of changing the world for the better if scaled up. "Saving it" is hyperbole. But it's not about making a nice meal for vegetarians, it's about sustainable meat consumption for a growing population.

awkwarddaturtle2• 9 years ago

This product is indeed capable of changing the world for the better if scaled up. "Saving it" is hyperbole.

But "changing the world" isn't hyperbole?

But it's not about making a nice meal for vegetarians, it's about sustainable meat consumption for a growing population.

What? Meat eaters aren't going to choose fake meat no more than vegetarians are going to choose fake vegetables/fruits.

People are still going to hunt, still going to keep livestock and still going to consume meat. We are omnivores after all.

Also, meat production is HIGHLY sustainable already. We waste tons of meat because we have such an excess of it.

Para2016• 9 years ago

It's not just him.

moretai2• 9 years ago

Jesus will save the world.

joestr• 9 years ago

I guarantee the meat industry will go to incredible lengths to make this company fail.

moretai2• 9 years ago

Then we should go to great lengths to prevent that.

Impossible Foods has raised $75M for its plant-based burgers

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