Why the 'Bloody' Impossible Burger Faces Another FDA Hurdle

[Eugene]

Source: Bloomberg

Why the ‘Bloody’ Impossible Burger Faces Another FDA Hurdle

The regulator wants more information before raw versions appear in your local supermarket. The agency’s approval process is being questioned, too.

By Lydia Mulvany and Deena Shanker
December 26, 2018, 4:00 AM EST

The famous “bloody,” plant-based Impossible Burger is now available at almost 5,000 restaurants in all 50 states. But the very appearance of bloodiness may have presented another regulatory hurdle for the company that makes it, and its effort to get the product into supermarkets.

Impossible Foods, the Silicon Valley-based maker of the eponymous burger, uses genetically modified yeast to mass produce its central ingredient, soy leghemoglobin, or “heme.” It’s heme that gives the Impossible Burger its essential meat-like flavor, the company said. The substance was ready to break out this summer after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, following years of back-and-forth, declined to challenge findings voluntarily presented by the company that the cooked product is “Generally Recognized as Safe,” or GRAS. Such a “no questions” letter means the FDA found the information provided to be sufficient.

Heme is “responsible for the flavor of blood,” Impossible Foods CEO Patrick Brown said in an interview earlier this year. “It catalyzes reactions in your mouth that generate these very potent odor molecules that smell bloody and metallic.”

It’s how the burger looks that’s now at issue, though. An FDA spokesman said heme, which is red in hue, needs to be formally approved as a color additive before individual consumers can purchase the uncooked product.

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Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-26/why-the-bloody-impossible-burger-faces-another-fda-hurdle

[handmade34]

1. creepy stuff

I was in a hotel in Orlando last week and ordered a "veggie burger"... had never eaten (or seen) one of these before and I just couldn't eat it... it was really awful

[athena]

3. Eating dead animals is what is creepy.

What is sick and creepy is paying a giant industry to abuse and kill animals, and then eating the flesh of those poor animals who only wanted a chance to live in the world like the rest of us.

[handmade34]

4. silly

I have been vegetarian for decades and only not vegan because I choose to eat my loved and cared for bee's honey and my chicken's eggs

I have been arguing against factory farms for 40 years...

[athena]

6. I edited my post.

I realized after posting it that you might be a vegetarian or a vegan. I’m sorry you saw it before the edit.

[handmade34]

7. it's all good...

I understand the outrage at people who profess to care about the environment and health and safety, but continue to carelessly eat meat

[deek]

2. gross

Tried one. Too much like the real thing.

[athena]

5. That's unfair.

I’ve never had an Impossible Burger and don’t plan to ever have one. However, it’s wrong to criticize a product that is, at the end of the day, an attempt to reduce animal suffering. The Impossible Burger is not for vegans; it’s for those who still eat animals and think they couldn’t live without the taste of meat.

[deek]

9. The problem is

now restaurants are serving this instead of veggie burgers.

[VideoGameVet]

8. Too close to my memory of beef

Yeah, I haven't eaten meat in decades and it was disturbingly close to my memory of it.

On the other hand, I know carnivores who have tried it and liked it, so if it helps them to stop eating meat I'm all good.

For me, I'd rather just have some black beans and brown rice.

[mitch96]

10. Impossible burger, just tried it..

I'm very impressed. It's like the real deal.. If your gonna convert the masses this is the way to go.. It was expensive though.. $14 for a burger.. ouch
m

[Mendocino]

11. IB

has a high amount of saturated fat 50% and salt 19% per serving. Beyond Meat has 25% and 16%. I'll stick with whole food vegan fare.