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posted by martyb on Sunday August 04 2019, @08:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the meet-meatless-meat dept.

The Impossible Whopper is coming to every Burger King in America next week

Burger King will start selling its meatless Whopper across the United States on August 8, the biggest rollout for Impossible's plant-based product.

The burger chain has been selling the Impossible Whopper, featuring a meatless patty made by Impossible Foods, in a few markets in the United States since April. It first tested the product in St. Louis before announcing in May that it would offer the Impossible Whopper nationally this year.

Interest in plant-based protein has surged as many people try to reduce their meat intake for health or environmental reasons. US retail sales of plant-based foods have grown 11% in the past year, according to a July report from trade group Plant Based Foods Association and the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that supports plant-based businesses.

Previously: Meatless "Beyond Burgers" Come to Fast Food Restaurants
Burger King Adds Impossible Vegan Burger To Menu

Related: Impossible Foods Just Raised $75 Million for Its Plant-based Burgers
Inside the Strange Science of the Fake Meat that 'Bleeds'
FDA Approves Impossible Burger "Heme" Ingredient; Still Wants to Regulate "Cultured Meat"
Following IPO of Beyond Meat, Tyson Foods Plans Launch of its Own Meatless Products


Original Submission

Related Stories

Impossible Foods Just Raised $75 Million for Its Plant-based Burgers 44 comments

Impossible Foods, the six-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based company known for its "juicy" meatless burgers, quietly announced $75 million in funding late last week, led by Temasek, with participation from Open Philanthropy, as well as earlier investors Bill Gates, Khosla Ventures and Horizon Ventures.

The company says it isn't providing further financial details but the round brings Impossible's funding to nearly $300 million, including earlier rounds that have included GV, Viking Global Investors and UBS.

Impossible's burgers are made with  soy leghemoglobin, a protein that carries heme, an iron-containing molecule that occurs naturally in every animal and plant.

The company has said it wants to replace a number of animal products with goods engineered from plants, but for now, it seems squarely focused on getting more of its burgers into the world. Part of that strategy involved opening a factory in Oakland, Ca., in May, where it expects to be producing 1 million pounds of ground "plant meat" each month.

Thought the race was on to have us eat insects.


Original Submission

Inside the Strange Science of the Fake Meat that 'Bleeds' 42 comments

From Wired:

WIRED wants to take you on the deepest dive yet into the science behind the Impossible Burger.

Biting into an Impossible Burger is to bite into a future in which humanity has to somehow feed an exploding population and not further imperil the planet with ever more livestock. Because livestock, and cows in particular, go through unfathomable amounts of food and water (up to 11,000 gallons a year per cow) and take up vast stretches of land. And their gastrointestinal methane emissions aren't doing the fight against global warming any favors either (cattle gas makes up 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide).

This is the inside story of the engineering of the Impossible Burger, the fake meat on a mission to change the world with one part soy plant, one part genetically engineered yeast—and one part activism. As it happens, though, you can't raise hell in the food supply without first raising a few eyebrows.

FDA Approves Impossible Burger "Heme" Ingredient; Still Wants to Regulate "Cultured Meat" 14 comments

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved soy leghemoglobin as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for human consumption:

Last August, documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that the FDA hadn't stomached the company's previous GRAS application. The agency concluded that soy leghemoglobin—a protein found in the roots of soybean plants that Impossible Foods harvests from genetically engineered yeast and uses to simulate the taste and bloodiness of meat—had not been adequately tested for safety.

In the application, Impossible Foods argued that the iron-containing protein is equivalent to hemoglobin, an oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells and commonly consumed in meat. Thus, the protein was safe, the company concluded. It went as far as conducting studies in rats to back up the claim. But the FDA noted that soy leghemoglobin had never been used as an additive before, and the organization wanted data showing that the protein was safe and not an allergen specifically for humans.

[...] At the time, the decision was a searing blow to Impossible Foods, which up until then had fired up the appetites of investors and top chefs alike and savored glowing publicity. Since the company's founding in 2011, big names such as Bill Gates and Google Ventures served up more than $250 million in startup funds, and the impossible patty sizzled on the menus of such high-end restaurants as Momofuku Nishi in New York and Jardinière in San Francisco. The soy leghemoglobin was a big part of that hype, with the company touting it as its "secret sauce."

But the FDA's gut check didn't knock Impossible Foods off the market; it just left a bad taste. In fact, the company wasn't even required to submit its GRAS application to begin with due to the controversial way in which the FDA oversees food additives and GRAS designations. Under the 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and the 1958 Food Additives Amendment, the FDA allows food companies and their hired consultants to internally test and determine a GRAS designation of a potential new additive all on their own. They can start using it without getting approval from the FDA or even notifying the agency. The FDA only steps in after the fact if problems arise.

Impossible Foods' FAQ says "the heme molecule in plant-based heme is atom-for-atom identical to the heme molecule found in meat". Heme is a component of soy leghemoglobin consisting of an iron atom bound in a porphyrin ring.

Meanwhile, the FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are continuing to fight over which agency will have jurisdiction over "cultured meat" (i.e. lab-grown animal cells for human consumption):

Meatless "Beyond Burgers" Come to Fast Food Restaurants 58 comments

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Meatless 'Beyond Burgers' come to Carl's Jr. restaurants

The competition in lab-made veggie burgers is heating up. Beyond Meat has brought its burgers to more than 1,000 Carl's Jr. locations in the US, marking its Beyond's largest restaurant deal to date. Order a $6.29 Beyond Famous Star and you can eat a vegetarian (sorry vegans, there's American cheese) burg that tastes much like its conventional beef counterparts. You can also pay $2 to add a Beyond patty to other burgers on the menu. [...] You can already eat Impossible burgers of various sizes at White Castle, Hopdoddy, [and] Umami Burger

The veggie burgers won't be available at Hardee's (a nearly identical fast food chain operated by the same parent company). Sorry, "flexitarians".

Big Beef Prepares For Battle, As Interest Grows In Plant-Based And Lab-Grown Meats

The U.S. meat industry is gigantic, with roughly $200 billion a year in sales, and getting larger. But the industry faces emerging threats on two fronts: plant-based meat substitutes and actual meat grown in labs. Plant-based meat substitutes are a lot more, well, meaty than they used to be. They sear on the grill and even "bleed." They look, taste and feel in the mouth a lot like meat. Savannah Blevin, a server at Charlie Hooper's, an old-school bar and grill in Kansas City, Mo., says the vegetarian Impossible Burgers on the menu are popular with the meat-eating crowd. "I had a vegetarian actually turn it away, because it reminded them so much of meat, they sent it back," says Blevins. "It's delicious," she adds.

The industry that makes these products is taking off, growing 20 percent a year. "Business is booming," says Todd Boyman, co-founder of food company Hungry Planet. "We just can't keep up. We're actually having to expand our production facilities to keep up with the demand that's out there for this type of food."

[...] The meat industry is focused on shaping the regulatory environment for its new competitors, taking into account lessons learned from the rise of plant-based milks.

Previously: Would You Try Silicon Valley's Bloody Plant Burger(s)?
Impossible Foods Just Raised $75 Million for Its Plant-based Burgers
Inside the Strange Science of the Fake Meat that 'Bleeds'
FDA Approves Impossible Burger "Heme" Ingredient; Still Wants to Regulate "Cultured Meat"

Related: U.S. Cattlemen's Association Wants an Official Definition of "Meat"
Missouri Regulates Use of the Word "Meat" by Food Producers


Original Submission

Burger King Adds Impossible Vegan Burger To Menu 25 comments

After a vegan cheeseburger crashed and burned Burger King has successfully rolled out a true alternative to meat burgers for vegans working with Impossible Foods to make the vegan Impossible Burger. First thought to be an April Fools joke, the Impossible Burger is now on the menu at St. Louis with one carnivore inclined customer saying that he would not have known that it was plant-based.

Finally, the last barrier to mankind heading for the stars has been reached.


Original Submission

Following IPO of Beyond Meat, Tyson Foods Plans Launch of its Own Meatless Products 39 comments

After exiting Beyond Meat, Tyson Foods will launch meatless products this summer

After exiting Beyond Meat, Tyson Foods said that it will roll out its own plant-based meat substitutes beginning this summer.

The Jimmy Dean owner sold its stake in Beyond before the company went public, citing its desire to produce vegetarian meat substitutes under its own umbrella of brands. CEO Noel White told analysts on the quarterly conference call Monday that the plant-based product will launch this summer on a limited basis, with a wider rollout in October and November.

[...] Beyond made the strongest market debut so far this year on Thursday, surging 163%. The stock has a market value of $3.97 billion, dwarfed by Tyson's own market value of $22.66 billion. Tyson shares gained more than 2% Monday.

Despite the difference in market value, Beyond and other makers of plant-based meat alternatives — such as Impossible Foods — pose a threat to Tyson. Beyond Meat's CEO, Ethan Brown, told CNBC that the company is trying to capture the meat industry's customers. Its gluten- and soy-free products are meant to more closely resemble and taste like meat than previous iterations of veggie burgers.

Also at CNN.

See also: Beyond Meat goes public with a bang: 5 things to know about the plant-based meat maker
Competitors Sink Their Teeth Into The Meatless-Meat Industry


Original Submission

Burger King Grilled by Vegan Over Impossible Burger "Meat Contamination" 84 comments

Lawsuit claims Burger King's Impossible Whoppers are contaminated by meat

Burger King was sued on Monday by a vegan customer who accused the fast-food chain of contaminating its meatless "Impossible" Whoppers by cooking them on the same grills as its traditional meat burgers.

In a proposed class action, Phillip Williams said he bought an Impossible Whopper, a plant-based alternative to Burger King's regular Whopper, at an Atlanta drive-through, and would not have paid a premium price had he known the cooking would leave it "coated in meat by-products."

The lawsuit filed in Miami federal court seeks damages for all U.S. purchasers of the Impossible Whopper, and an injunction requiring Burger King to "plainly disclose" that Impossible Whoppers and regular burgers are cooked on the same grills.

[...] Its website describes the Impossible Burger as "100% Whopper, 0% Beef," and adds that "for guests looking for a meat-free option, a non-broiler method of preparation is available upon request."

Also at Boing Boing.

Previously: Meatless "Beyond Burgers" Come to Fast Food Restaurants
Burger King Adds Impossible Vegan Burger To Menu
Plant-Based "Impossible Burger" Coming to Every Burger King Location

Related: Inside the Strange Science of the Fake Meat that 'Bleeds'
FDA Approves Impossible Burger "Heme" Ingredient; Still Wants to Regulate "Cultured Meat"
Following IPO of Beyond Meat, Tyson Foods Plans Launch of its Own Meatless Products
Impossible Burger Lands in Some California Grocery Stores


Original Submission

McDonald's to Introduce Meatless "McPlant" Burger 57 comments

McDonald's unveils McPlant line, which includes meatless patty co-created by Beyond Meat

McDonald's will test a meat-free burger in several markets next year as it adds plant-based menu offerings, which it has coined "McPlant."

International President Ian Borden said that McPlant was created "by McDonald's and for McDonald's." Borden said that the McPlant line could also include chicken substitutes.

McDonald's has not yet disclosed the supplier for the line. A company spokesperson declined to identify their supplier but said that McDonald's will not be manufacturing the products.

But a spokesperson for Beyond Meat said in a statement to CNBC that the company co-created the plant-based patty that will be available as part of the McPlant line. Shares of Beyond rose as much as 4% in afternoon trading after falling as much as 6% earlier on Monday. The stock, which was briefly halted for volatility in both morning and afternoon trading, is currently down less than 1%.

See also: Beyond Meat shares rise on news that it collaborated with McDonald's on the McPlant options
Beyond Meat earnings miss big on declining food service and consumer demand

Beyond Meat's partnership with McDonald's to develop the McPlant burger wasn't enough to keep shares from collapsing after the company posted third-quarter earnings that fell far below analysts' expectations.

The big miss sent shares tumbling nearly 29% in after markets closed Monday after reporting it generated $94.4 million in revenues and a loss of 28 cents per share versus the $132.8 million in revenue and 5 cents per share loss that analysts had expected.

Previously: Meatless "Beyond Burgers" Come to Fast Food Restaurants
Following IPO of Beyond Meat, Tyson Foods Plans Launch of its Own Meatless Products
Plant-Based "Impossible Burger" Coming to Every Burger King Location
Meat Industry PR Campaign Bashes Plant-Based Meat Alternatives
Bot Orders $18,752 of McSundaes Every 30 Minutes to Find If Machines are Working


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @08:41AM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @08:41AM (#875432)

    * For varying definitions of "every"

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @04:04PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @04:04PM (#875536)

      I know my BK won't have it ... because last year it was knocked down and replaced by a Starbucks.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @04:56PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @04:56PM (#875568)

        Get woke, go broke. It is official; Netcraft now confirms: BK is dying

        One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered BK community when IDC confirmed that BK market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all fast food. Coming close on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that BK has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. BK is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent comprehensive taste test.

        You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict BK's future. The hand writing is on the wall: BK faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for BK because BK is dying. Things are looking very bad for BK. As many of us are already aware, BK continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @08:47AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @08:47AM (#875434)

    A tax on meat products in the same fashion as the car insurance tax where if you refuse to put a GPS tracker box in your car you have to pay more. On top of the halal tax of course.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday August 04 2019, @07:48PM (1 child)

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday August 04 2019, @07:48PM (#875641) Homepage

      I dunno, I think that every place should have some kind of vegetarian offering, makes it a lot less of a pain in the ass when it's dinnertime with that annoyingly vegetarian woman you're dating.

      But yeah, this is all deliberate UN bullshit, normalizing eating bugs so they can run a starvation-based slave economy of overpopulation to maintain infinite financial growth for the shareowner classes. Yeah, no -- you can pry my big, bloody beefsteaks from my cold, dead hands.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @10:05PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @10:05PM (#875682)

        EF comprehends capitalism! Huzzah!

  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday August 04 2019, @12:16PM (10 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Sunday August 04 2019, @12:16PM (#875473) Journal

    Sheeeit: A&W has been selling it in Canada for, what...a year now? Two?

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    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday August 04 2019, @12:22PM (6 children)

      by takyon (881) <{takyon} {at} {soylentnews.org}> on Sunday August 04 2019, @12:22PM (#875475) Journal

      The root beer?

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      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 4, Funny) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday August 04 2019, @02:51PM (5 children)

        by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Sunday August 04 2019, @02:51PM (#875506) Journal

        Canadians are even more inventive. They've manufactured a burger entirely made of root beer. (Well, I think there might be a little maple syrup involved. It is Canada...)

        Even more surprising, A&W will be releasing a root beer made entirely from burgers next year. Something, something, CRISPR, something, something, genetic engineering... I mean, they don't call it the "impossible" burger for nothin'. As Dr. Spacemen said on 30 Rock, "Science is whatever we want it to be."

        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Sunday August 04 2019, @05:46PM (4 children)

          by Gaaark (41) on Sunday August 04 2019, @05:46PM (#875589) Journal

          There's an A&W near us that puts our burgers (lettuce wrapped, no bun) on a real plate with real utensils.
          The fries go into a wire basket, the root beer into real glass mugs (pre-frozen to keep the drink cold without ice to water it down).

          You throw away your napkin and a little paper thing they put under the fries. That's it. The rest is washed and reused.

          McDonald's? You throw away EVERYTHING.

          I SOOOOO appreciate A&W... awcoupon.ca FTW!

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
          • (Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday August 04 2019, @06:00PM (1 child)

            by takyon (881) <{takyon} {at} {soylentnews.org}> on Sunday August 04 2019, @06:00PM (#875597) Journal

            Does the root beer use sugar?

            The canned A&W I'm drinking this very moment contains high fructose corn syrup and was produced under the authority of Dr. Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. in Plano, Texas.

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            [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 05 2019, @02:43AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 05 2019, @02:43AM (#875756)

            McDonald's? You throw away EVERYTHING.

            Everything? Including the "food"? Well done! Healthy choice right there!

            • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday August 05 2019, @12:18PM

              by Gaaark (41) on Monday August 05 2019, @12:18PM (#875889) Journal

              Pretty much.
              Not. a. fan.

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              --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 1) by j-beda on Sunday August 04 2019, @08:13PM (2 children)

      by j-beda (6342) on Sunday August 04 2019, @08:13PM (#875651) Homepage

      A&W Canada sells the "Beyond Burger" rather than the "Impossible Burger".

      https://web.aw.ca/en/our-menu/burgers/beyond-meat-burger [web.aw.ca]

      They are not bad, with a taste and texture well within the variations of "regular" burgers I have had. If the cost can become comparable to the cow burgers, big changes will follow.

      • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday August 04 2019, @08:40PM

        by Gaaark (41) on Sunday August 04 2019, @08:40PM (#875658) Journal

        It's UNPOSSIBLE! I made a misteak! Shit...I made amother. Sheet!....

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday August 04 2019, @11:38PM

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Sunday August 04 2019, @11:38PM (#875719)

        If the cost can become comparable to the cow burgers, big changes will follow.

        The only way that will happen is if these guys manage to get the massive subsidies that the farmers get. Meat is cheap because of the money taxpayers give to farmers.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @03:01PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @03:01PM (#875508)
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @04:11PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @04:11PM (#875542)

      The televangelist or the burger?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @04:44PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @04:44PM (#875560)

        The burger obviously, the televangelist is plain nuts.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @05:19PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @05:19PM (#875577)

          Hey nutburgers aren't bad, just hard to keep enough moisture in them. Finally SoylentNews is delivering!!

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @07:53PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @07:53PM (#875644)

            Hey nutburgers aren't bad

            Really? Even deez nutz?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 05 2019, @02:46AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 05 2019, @02:46AM (#875759)

      Only after paying to have it certified.

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @03:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @03:17PM (#875514)

    WHERE'S THE BEEF?

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by VLM on Sunday August 04 2019, @03:52PM (8 children)

    by VLM (445) on Sunday August 04 2019, @03:52PM (#875529)

    Interest in plant-based protein has surged as many people try to

    Virtue signal their holier-than-thou-ness and higher class aspirations by eating at .... burger king? Well, its slightly higher status than eating at McD, but not much. This kind of thing could sell well at a Panera Bread, Chipotle, or Starbucks, but ... burger king?

    according to a July report from ...

    ... a marketing firm that merely coincidentally is funded by the mfgr and coincidentally happens to support the advertising campaign.

    This kind of legacy media is funny in how lame it is, is there anyone under the age of 90, or over an IQ of 90, who falls for this kind of stuff anymore?

    When I was a young and poor student I could save up and splurge on "fancy" fast food once in a while... it would take a hell of a lot of social media updoots to convince me to save up more money for an imitation product. If I wanted a crappy meal I'd have saved my money and eaten a nice cheap salad with a PB+J.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @04:43PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @04:43PM (#875558)

      Hey racist dirtbag

      "Quite definitely, they're blinded by sycophantic rage and religious zeal. We're the enemy in their mind, the faceless and terrifying radical left, just as much as China and Mexicans and Drugs.

      Murdoch's propaganda machine has worked splendidly, better than he could've possibly hoped for—as evidenced by Trump, a stupid-as-shit racist conniving uncontrollable right-wing behemoth who rose to power specifically because of the ineptitude of the shitgibbons running Murdochs platform, and with the help of Russians and Gerrymandering and GOP cheating and etc, or whatever.

      But Trump is a catastrophe entirely created, at its root, by Fox News and hungry corporate interests.

      They have stoked so much hatred, fear, and anger that the die-hard Trump apologists would quite literally kill for him.

      Edit; Y'all people that think a Trump-generated Militia is outside the realm of possibility truly don't understand how group-think and cult dynamics work. Sure, maybe one-third of Trump supporters wouldn't literally kill for him, 'they're not evil they're just uneducated', but a couple thousand (10,000+ out of millions?) definitely would jump to his call if he got them to believe the deep state was taking over or the election was being controlled by the Dems.

      You guys think this idea of the Cult of Trump being above reproach simply forget that they actively and fervently support a white nationalist. They will do whatever their mind allows them to justify as necessary to protecting their life and their home.

      I don't even hate these people, I just don't think that violence is outside of their mind's capability to justify considering all of these recent mass shootings at the hands of radicalized white supremacists.

      'They could never do that!' Bullshit, bull to the shit MAX, that's exactly what Germans thought about their own countrymen before the rise of Hitler, and I'm sure other victims of dictators minions thought the same.

      And that's the fucking point. Fox News has been working on radicalizing an entire portion of the population since before most of us were born. The roots have already been laid, and the fact that you think that violence is outside of the realm of possibility makes you the deluded one because people are already dying."

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @07:08PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @07:08PM (#875628)

      BK has always had interesting marketing. Too bad it does not translate into butts in seats buying food....

      • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday August 04 2019, @10:24PM

        by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Sunday August 04 2019, @10:24PM (#875690)

        BK has always had interesting marketing. Too bad it does not translate into butts in seats buying food....

        For those that do buy, it translates into heartburn.

    • (Score: 2) by caffeine on Monday August 05 2019, @12:24AM (4 children)

      by caffeine (249) on Monday August 05 2019, @12:24AM (#875728)

      I expect their goal is not to actually sell them. By having them on the menu, virtue signallers will have licence to visit the store and purchase the more profitable meat based burgers.

      When McD introduced salads, in Australia at least they had a big jump in sales from their traditional menu for this very reason.

      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 05 2019, @12:33AM (2 children)

        by takyon (881) <{takyon} {at} {soylentnews.org}> on Monday August 05 2019, @12:33AM (#875732) Journal

        https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/1/20750704/burger-king-nationwide-rollout-impossible-whopper-august-8 [theverge.com]

        To prove just how similar the two taste, Burger King is also rolling out a “taste test” promotion exclusively on both the DoorDash and the BK app. Between August 8th and September 1st, customers can receive both a Whopper and Impossible Whopper for $7. They’ll have to use the code “IMPOSSIBLE” to qualify. DoorDash users can also apply that code for free delivery. There’s some fine print, like that the BK app offer isn’t applicable in Hawaii and Alaska, so check this page first if you want to try the code.

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        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 05 2019, @12:36PM (1 child)

          by VLM (445) on Monday August 05 2019, @12:36PM (#875897)

          $7 for two "eh" burgers, I've noticed a trend in fast food to try and charge near or exceeding sit-down prices for "eh" product. Also even the "budget" fast food is pushing up against "luxury" fast food.

          Just saying I'd rather take my $7 and go to, well, almost any place other than BK / McD ... Five guys, Culvers, local places ...

          Aside from burgers, $7 would get me a Chick-fil-A Deluxe and have $3 and change left over, almost enough to eat lunch tomorrow. Its hard to drive past a Chick-fil-A on the way to a burger joint.

          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Monday August 05 2019, @01:23PM

            by takyon (881) <{takyon} {at} {soylentnews.org}> on Monday August 05 2019, @01:23PM (#875925) Journal

            $3.50 is competitive with other burger joints of around the same quality. And I may go out and try that deal this week.

            Ultimately, plant-based meat replacements and later lab-grown/cultured meat should not exceed the cost of regular meats. In fact, they should be cheaper.

            Moving out of the fast food realm, Impossible Foods also just received approval to sell their "raw" product in supermarkets [reuters.com]. I don't know what the price of that would be, but we do know the price of their competitor, Beyond Meat. They sell a package of 2 quarter-pound patties for about $5-6 (pictured here [barrons.com]). So $10-12 per pound. Raw ground beef costs around $2-4 per pound. I actually bought that and grilled it up for two vegetarians, and they enjoyed it. But from what I can tell it is not nearly as good of an imitator as the Impossible Burger, and it uses beet juice for coloring instead of "heme" [soylentnews.org].

            Anyway, it is expensive, like other meatless brands (Boca, Morningstar, etc.) have historically been. That might work for a while, but I find it hard to believe that a plant-based substance can't be made more cheaply than beef as production is scaled up. Same with lab-grown meat, which will supposedly use a small fraction of the resources (such as land, water, energy) needed to raise cattle. If you want to meet lofty environmental goals using these products, and get hundreds of millions to start eating them instead of meat, you need to make it cheaper per pound and per gram of protein, rather than another premium-priced thing for the organic-buying crowd. The plants used should be grown using genetic engineering too; fuck the anti-GMO movement.

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            [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 05 2019, @12:28PM

        by VLM (445) on Monday August 05 2019, @12:28PM (#875894)

        Thats an interesting take on it which is probably correct.

        One minor point to make is Culvers sells salads, they taste really good, and I know they sell a ton of burgers because "X wants a salad" so suddenly the group has to go to Culvers for their meal.

        Something I've now considered is its possible BK wants to lure in groups because that one girl with the purple hair wants to virtue signal her holiness on tumblr, so they end up selling five burgers to the less devout who accompany her. Or Xir, or Xe, or whatever pronoun.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @06:59PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @06:59PM (#875625)

    mmm, yummy. infiltrate my proteins with your slow kill weapony goodness!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @11:53PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @11:53PM (#875724)

      What do cows eat? You're getting it one way or another.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 05 2019, @05:54PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 05 2019, @05:54PM (#876101)

        actually, i've tried to remove all glyphosate from my diet. i don't even eat peanut butter, which *was* going great with my carrots...

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