A Faux Beef Patty That Looks, Tastes And Even ‘Bleeds'

A plant-based faux beef patty that looks, tastes and even ‘bleeds’ is behind US start-up Impossible Foods’ mission to remove meat from the world’s menu by 2035.

- Shamilee Vellu

Most of us wouldn’t look to plant roots when trying to replicate the taste of meat, but most of us aren’t Pat Brown. The Impossible Foods founder and former Stanford biochemist was experimenting with soybean plants when he noticed that breaking their root nodules made them ooze a crimson liquid similar to blood. This secretion would become the breakthrough behind his company’s star product, the Impossible Burger, a faux beef patty touted to cook, taste and even ‘bleed’ like the real thing.

Brown premiered version 2.0 of the Impossible Burger in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where it swept the top awards including the Best of the Best prize – the latest accolade for a product that has gathered momentum at an impressive rate, thanks in part to its powerful backers. From original patron Khosla Ventures, Impossible Foods has garnered over US$450 million of investment funds, fuelled by heavyweights such as Bill Gates, Google Ventures, Li Ka-Shing’s Horizons Ventures, and significantly, Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, which injected US$75 million in 2017. The Impossible Burger is now available in over 5,000 US locations and over 100 restaurants in Hong Kong and Macau. Singapore is next, with a debut planned for this year.

All this commercial firepower would, of course, be moot if the product itself didn’t taste good. Meat alternatives are not in themselves groundbreaking – the Chinese have enjoyed ‘mock meats’ for centuries, and plant-based meat makers have entered the fray, using ingredients such as pea protein, mushrooms and tofu with varying degrees of success.