Impossible Foods

According to Impossible Foods, Inc. Director of Research Celeste Holz-Schietinger, the product was born from the question "What makes meat meat?". Simply put, the last decade of research has revealed more about how the brain responds to food cues, meaning that food is not only necessary for survival, but is a cognitive experience. Several studies have demonstrated that there is differential brain activity in response to visual, gustatory, and auditory cues of the eating (and cooking) experience. Consequently, scientists at Impossible Foods have worked to break ground beef down into all its molecular components to understand how to better replicate the cognitive experience of cooking and eating ground beef.

To be able to sustainably mass-produce leghemoglobin without avoid having to actually harvest soy plant root nodules, scientists at Impossible Foods developed a genetically modified strain of yeast strain that contains the leghemoglobin gene and can quickly grow via fermentation. They also developed a scalable way to isolate the leghemoglobin, from the yeast with consistent and extremely high purity.

While taste, color, and aroma were one hurdle to clear in the development of a meat substitute, Impossible Foods wanted to incorporate ingredients that would satiate other cognitive responses. In their most recent iteration, they use wheat protein, which has the same fleshy texture of beef, potato protein, which gives the same crust that forms on the outer layer of seared beef, and flakes of coconut oil that melt when the burger is grilled, mimicking beef fat and giving the characteristic "sizzle" of cooking meat.

The main product of Impossible Foods is the Impossible Burger, a meat analougeanalogue made from plant derived materials.

Impossible Foods has begun to supply restaurants with their product at locations across the United States and Hong Kong. They began this process in early 2016, distributing their product first to high-end restaurants, then partnering with their first national chain: Fatburger. Impossible Burgers has announced that is has secured a distribution agreement with Burger King, starting with Burger Kings in St. Louis, Missouri.

There are claims that the Impossible Burger has a similar texture to actual beef, while others were impressed with the flavor and aroma. Criticism includes a review that the burger left a lingering bitter aftertaste, another review that said they could taste the coconut flavor in the burger, and a third review said if the burger is well cooked throughout, it gains a distinct wheat flavor that was unpleasant.