The Meat That Isn't Meat

Impossible Foods is the greatest thing to happen to beef since farmers started persuading cows to head into abattoirs.

The revelation came to Professor Patrick Brown (pictured left) one day in 2011: If he created a red meat alternative, it was the meat eaters he would have to convert, not the vegetarians (why give them yet another substitute?). A meat eater loves meat for its taste, its bloody texture, its smell – the way it acts like meat when cooked.

Together with the scientists at Impossible Foods (www.impossible foods.com), where he’s the founder and CEO, he discovered the solution in one magic ingredient – heme (or haem), an iron-containing molecule that’s in every plant and animal. It is abundant in animal muscle, which is what gives beef its meaty flavour.