BEYOND MEATS VS IMPOSSIBLE MEATS

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Impossible Burger or Beyond Meats
Impossible Burger VS Beyond Meat's Burger

I’ve had both burgers…The Impossible and Beyond Burger…I prefer one more than the other, one still has some work to do, to escape that beets and black bean fake meat taste and the other has conquered this feat with the addition of a yeast extract called HEME that actually makes plants taste like meat.

As with anything dealing with other people cooking your food, it’s really going to depend on who makes your Impossible burger or Beyond Burger.

I’ve had them fresh off of the grill at Burger King, and they were great.
But I’ve also had an Impossible burger at a restaurant, and it was overcooked and sucked. Both times that I have had Beyond burgers were at home and made by myself. BTW I’m a good cook.

The Impossible Burger and the Beyond Meat burger are two food products coming from technology companies that are focused on duplicating the taste of beef by utilizing plant-based alternatives.

The main goal or objective is plant-based meat which looks, taste, bleeds, and smells like real beef.

Beyond Meat has integrated a traditional retail or grocer model (example Target, Whole Foods) while Impossible burger, is only available in selected restaurants and now can be found in selected states at the fast-food burger joints like Burger King.

Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are on the leading edge of technology to generate more innovative ways to make a vegan product that satisfies the desires and needs of meat-eaters.

These products are sparing the environment from the significant resource demands needed to produce beef.

From the viewpoint of environmental safety, raising livestock for the primary purpose of meat consumption is dangerous to the planet in general.

Impossible Burger Vs Beyond Burger
Veggie Burgers are HOT !

Recent research conducted by the PETA discovered that over 1/3 of the whole raw materials in the U.S are relevant for the consumption and raising of livestock.

The total amount of land committed to ranch grazing along with the massive burden of water to generate beef is an unmaintainable model if the global population keeps on growing.

One major thing to note for the two products is that these are not the veggie/soy burgers you might be used to.

The goal of each is to replace the sear, look, and flavor of a local beef burger. Both products were made using various combinations of proteins (soy, pea, heme) and several other binding agents.

Because of some crafty bio-engineering, both will eventually bleed when cut, because of the addition of particular beets that gives each the coloring necessary.

Both companies are funded and backed by some potential partners. Beyond Meat notes Bill Gates and Leonardo DiCaprio as initial seed investors.

They companies brag about other meat alternatives like chicken strips, pork sausages, and ground beef crumbles to come in the future.

These products are available at grocers around the country and have sold more than 13 million patties worldwide.

Impossible Foods isn’t a brand new entrant in the space (est. 2012) they’ve raised over $75M in 2017 through an adaptable or convertible investment structure that has recently built up a sum of $114m in venture capital funding.

Until recently Impossible burgers were available in more than 5,000 eateries around the United States. But with the Burger King chain selling Impossible Whoppers, small mom and pop eateries have been having trouble getting burgers to sell.

Impossible Foods is looking for a way to give not just a substitute to ground meat, but also plant-based meat alternatives for fish, egg, chicken, and steak. They are also planning on a replacement for cheese.

Beyond Meats Burger Pros and Cons

What exactly is it, and what is in it? The Beyond Meat burger is a 100 percent plant-based burger that looks, taste, and cooks like a real burger made with beef.

Though, the patty is 100 percent plant-based patty. It is still essential for it to get cooked before consumption. This is also a pea protein-based meat burger.

Pros
Smells/looks great! Not too different from a real burger.
Great char/sear
Bleed realistically

Cons
A little bit dry, even when prepared to a medium-well temperature
Hard to cook to get the needed result (medium-well temperature)

After texture and taste were closer to the veggie burger as compared with a real one.
We purchased two patties from a local Whole Foods. The price was around $6, and they were found in a refrigerator cooler.

We prepared one of these burgers on a nonstick pan on our stovetop. What became apparent was the sizzle that we heard upon putting the burger on a pan. It was like we were making a regular burger. We had to drop a slice of extremely sharp cheddar on top for about a minute before we felt it was ready.

We then put the cooked burger on a Sesame roll along with onions, tomatoes, sliced dill pickles, and lettuce. We added a bit of ketchup and mayo to it to complete the process. While staring at it from a far distance, it was hard to differentiate it from a real burger. When we had the first bite, we were even more stunned as the bleed and crunch were weirdly similar to that of a real burger. There were also a few areas we had issues with.

Although we cooked it to a pink middle (medium), it tasted dry, far from what we expected. Furthermore, the after taste just did not taste good. It did not taste terrible, but it did not taste quite like a real burger.

The Impossible Burger and Heme

What exactly is it, and what does it contain? The impossible burger is a 100 percent plant-based alternative beef patty that could be formed into ground “beef” crumbles and meatballs.

The ingredients in the actual patty are potato protein, wheat protein, sugars, amino acids, and heme. Heme can be seen as a molecule that carries oxygen inside the blood, which is also the primary reason why the blood is red.

Heme could be found in plants, and the Impossible Foods ferment their heme to give their patties the red color blood.

How is it related to beef? Similar to Beyond Meat Burger, the Impossible Burger developers discovered the same beef properties in plants and generated their patties.
But it also bleeds! Yes, that is true.

We discussed the bloody nature and appearance when we pointed out what it contains. They utilize plant heme to keep their patties colored.

The significant differences between beet juice and plant heme are that the heme helps in providing a deeper red color and as soon as it cooks the beef out, the color turns into that brow beef which we are all used to seeing in actual beef patties.

Impossible Burger Pros and Cons

Pros
Smells/look great! Not too different from an actual burger
Outstanding meat-like texture
The after taste is very juicy with a weirdly rich meat-like flavor.

Cons
Char/sear was just ok.”
Unavailable for retail purchase
While the Beyond Meat Burger is available in a grocer, the Impossible Burger isn’t. Presently, the Impossible Burger is only made available at selected restaurants.

To locate the nearest restaurant that serves one, you could use an online finder.

A waiter at a restaurant we once had Impossible Burger at, told us that they had initially upgraded to a brand new Impossible Burger Recipe, i.e., Version 2.

Also, we were told that several changes were made to give the burger a more realistic burger taste. We placed an order for one with the same extras/bun as the Beyond burger to keep the comparison close.

The very first thing we discovered is that the Impossible Burger passed the eye-test. It looks just like a regular burger. On the first bite, we found that the crunch and texture were astonishing.

We did not notice the bleed like how we did with the Beyond Meat Burger; however, it still was meat-like and juicy. The after-taste is what astounded us.

That delicious taste you remember with a standard burger was weirdly almost the same. This is because of the addition of heme.

To cut a long story short, the main reason why meat tastes like meat is due to the protein which you will find in all meat.

The geniuses at Impossible Burger have a way replicated this molecule though plant-based meat alternatives, and the outcome is incredible.

Like we said earlier, our main regret is the fact that the Impossible Burger isn’t available for retail purchases.

However, we have been informed that it will be made available as early as April 2019.

Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger Ingredients

Comparing ingredients
Take a close look at the packaging on an Impossible Burger and a Beyond Meat Burger, and you will see an extensive list of ingredients.

The Impossible Meat Burger consists of the following ingredients:
Coconut Oil, Soy Protein Concentrate, Sunflower Oil, Water, Natural Flavors, 1% or more of: Methylcellulose, Potato protein, Cultured Dextrose, Yeast Extract, Soy Leghemoglobin, Food Starch Modified, Salt, Soy Protein Isolate, Zinc Gluconate, Mixed Tocopherols, Sodium Ascorbate, Niacin, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin B12 and Riboflavin.

Apart from water, the primary ingredient is soy protein concentrate. Soybeans are very healthy; however, soy protein concentrate is seriously processed, which implies that several benefits in raw food get lost.

For instance, raw soybeans are good at providing a calcium, iron, Vitamin B-6, Vitamin C, and magnesium, however Impossible Foods reinforces it’s burgers with minerals and vitamins, to make up for all the nutrients lost during processing.

The Beyond Meat Burger consists of the following ingredients:
Pea Protein Isolate, Water, Refined Coconut Oil, Expeller-Pressed Canola Oil, contains 1% or more of the following: Methylcellulose, Cellulose from bamboo, Natural Flavor, Yeast Extract, Maltodextrin, Sunflower Oil, Salt, Dried Yeast, Vegetable Glycerin, Citrus Extract (for protecting quality), Gum Arabic, Ascorbic Acid (for maintaining color), Acetic Acid, Beet Juice Extract (for color), Succinic Acid, Annatto, and Modified Food Starch.

When it comes to ingredients, the Impossible Burger and the Beyond Meat Burger are quite the same, the difference being the primary source of protein.

The Beyond Meat Burger utilizes pea protein rather than soy protein, and there is no soy Leghemoglobin, which is the key ingredient in Impossible Burger that makes this burger bleed.

Beyond Meats and Impossible Meats leading the way...
Impossible and Beyond Meats leading the way…

Furthermore, Beyond Burger’s red color is from the beet extract, instead of the heme derived from the Leghemoglobin used in the Impossible Burger.

Are Impossible and Beyond Burgers Vegan?

Yes, the Beyond Meat Burger and Impossible Burger can both be regarded as vegan – neither consist of any animal products or by-products. For what it is worth, the Beyond Meat claims all its products are vegan certified.

Also, the Impossible Burger is certified kosher and halal. Beyond Meat does not specify if their products are halal or kosher.

Is one better than the other?

The final verdict is that both companies have produced a burger in a laboratory, made from only plant-based products and intended to imitate the texture and taste of actual beef.

Your level of comfort with that depends on your stand with food engineering (and how fussy you may be about meat, in case you love eating it.)

A few things may affect your opinion on which burger is better or healthier:
The Impossible Burger has mostly organic components, whereas the Beyond Burger does not.

The Beyond Burger is mainly non-GMO, while the Impossible Meat recently had to deal with backlash for utilizing hereditarily modified ingredients that contain pesticide glyphosate.

The Impossible Burger is also invigorated with more minerals and vitamins than the Beyond Burger.

How do they taste?
The impossible Burger tastes like standard beef for grossing out vegetarians, and the food geniuses at Impossible Meat say the burger could replace ground beef in any kind of recipe.

The Beyond meat Burger is labeled as having a coconut-y after-taste; however, most of its reviews on Amazon often come from happy customers who are very impressed by its proximity with natural beef.

Both the Impossible Burger and the beyond Meat Burger are usually described as replicating beef more than other local vegetarian burger patties (such as a Boca Burger).

But, the texture and taste of both burgers might not be close enough for individual beef lovers.

In a taste test which involved an Impossible Meat Burger, a Beyond Meat Burger and a regular beef burger, all tasters were able to point out which patties were plant-based and which one was the real beef.

Bottom Line
If we were told even four years ago, that a ‘meat-like,’ realistic veggie burger existed, we would have gazed upon it with several skepticisms.

But, the Beyond Burger and the Impossible Burger have both exceeded our expectations. Although we like certain parts in the Beyond Meat Burger, we have to give our nod and acknowledgment to the impossible Burger.

What actually makes it better than the Beyond Meat Burger is the ‘heme’ protein it contains.

The after-taste is close to the main thing. If we had carried out a blind taste test, then we will honestly not have been able to spot the difference.

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