Burger King’s Whoppers are known across the globe for their grilled beef goodness but the fast food chain has now taken a big step which essentially brings plant-based meat into the mainstream. It has started selling a new kind of Whopper which has absolutely no beef in the patty whatsoever. Yet, the chain is staking its reputation on it, saying that the taste is identical to its beef patty.
Burger King has launched the Impossible Burger in partnership with a startup company called Impossible Foods. It’s going to supply the chain with patties made with heme. It’s a protein that’s cultivated from soybean roots that can mimic the texture of meat.
“People on my team who know the Whopper inside and out, they try it and they struggle to differentiate which one is which,” Burger King’s chief marketing officer Fernando Machado told The New York Times. That’s quite a statement.
Many have been calling for meat alternatives to replace actual meat over concerns about animal cruelty. Whether or not Burger King will scale it up remains to be seen. It’s trying out the Impossible Burger in 59 restaurants in the St. Louis area.
If the test run proves to be successful, the chain will make the Impossible Burger available in all of its 7,200 locations across the United States. A noticeable drop in meat consumption nationwide could then be expected if other fast food chains follow suit as well.
Filed in . Read more about Burger King. Source: nytimes