What is the REAL difference between the traditional Veggie Burgers that have been around forever, and these relatively new Plant-Based Protien versions?
In: Biology
Very different, the old ones are basically beans ground up into a paste with some other veggies in them. They press it into a patty and that’s it. They taste like veggies because it’s made out of veggies.
The newer ones are refined vegetable proteins and fats, picked specifically because they are similar to their beef counterparts. They are mixed to taste as close to beef as possible while containing no animal products.
The new burgers are made of significantly different ingredients, including some gene-modified ones. The Impossible Burger folks published their original recipe a while back. In it, they inserted a heme-rich soy protein into genetically modified yeast, which then made tons of this protein. It is this protein that gives the burger the pink juices which make it look like beef.
They have recently upgraded their product, and I haven’t seen the new recipe on the net.
There hasn’t been a high demand for veggie burgers until recently, so not a lot of companies would invest in finding good veggie substitutes.
As veganism and vegetarians are on the rise, it means a new gap in the market for good quality meat substitutes. The money going into substitutes has been put towards 1.) making the substitutes more meat-like, hence improving quality. 2.) marketing, which means your “just veggie burgers” are now “nutrient dense cruelty free high protein healthy burgers”.
Veggie Burgers taste nothing like a meat-based burger, and don’t even try to. They are a tasty vegetable patty that happens to be shaped like a burger.
The new ones actually resemble ground beef.
Mentioned a bit below, but to clarify, the Beyond/Impossible burgers are much more “meat” like in that they “bleed” via a plant-based heme (leghemoglobin), and have a very similar taste to beef.
As noted below, there have been a variety of veggie patties in the past with a meaty texture (rather than just the common legume/cereal grain pressed patties) via myco or textured vegetable protein, but not at this level.
TL;DR – The two main new burgers are designed to emulate meat in virtually every way, rather than just being a tasty/healthy plant protein patty shaped like a burger.
A lot of the older veggie burger products that were trying to mimic the taste and consistency of meat used egg whites, which aren’t vegan, and/or soy protein and wheat gluten. The Impossible burger still does use both soy and wheat, but the Beyond burger does not use either, which allows it to be eaten by a wider range of people that may have allergy concerns.
Traditional veggie burgers have been made from whole veggies and other sources like brown rice, whereas the new burgers (Beyond and Impossible) are made from processed vegetable proteins. They also add several things (like coconut oil) to drastically increase the saturated fat content.
As of right now, unless you’re a vegetarian, vegan, or just want a tasty replacement for red meat once a week, they’re probably *worse for you* because of their processed nature. I think the Beyond Burger has 20 processed ingredients and the Impossible is very close.
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