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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
(Score: 4, Informative) by HiThere on Tuesday November 19 2019, @05:15PM (5 children)
Well, I'm allergic to something related to beef. It can't be to beef itself, because I eat and enjoy hamburgers, etc. But I can't wear a leather belt or shoes where the leather touches my skin. Fortunately, shoes are now often plastic and rubber, and I can use suspenders instead of a belt.
That said, I have a sister with celiac disease, and even a slice of meat that's been cut with a knife used to cut bread is enough to send her to the emergency room. So dietary rules can be important. So if they make false claims about what's in the food, they should suffer strong penalties. A short web search shows that beef allergies exist...though it's not clear how common they are, or whether an impossible burger would be inherently dangerous to a person with such an allergy. (One site called it "mammalian meat allergy", but most seemed to think it was likely restricted to a few closely related species, such as chickens, ducks, and turkeys. Perhaps there's more than one causal mechanism.
All that said, I've another sister who's a rather extreme vegetarian, but not so extreme that she made her kids be vegetarians. Just enough of one that she won't (as opposed to can't) wear leather. (E.g., I am currently wearing a canvas and plastic based shoe with a leather outer surface, and she wouldn't wear that.) But she's never sued anyone. And my mother became lactose intolerant when she was in her late 80's or possibly early 90's. But she was quite willing to drink lactose free milk.
So. There are dietary requirements, dietary preferences, and dietary "it's not a requirement, but if I eat this I'll regret it"'s. All are important, though to varying degrees. So if they advertise something about food, it should be mandatory that they fulfill the promise. Because they don't know which it is.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Informative) by slinches on Tuesday November 19 2019, @09:43PM
It's still accurate to the number of significant figures stated. The beef "contamination" by cooking the fake meat on the same grill as the real meat is almost assuredly less than 0.5%. Unless the plaintiff can prove that, it isn't false advertizing.
(Score: 4, Informative) by krishnoid on Tuesday November 19 2019, @09:51PM (2 children)
You can acquire a beef allergy from a tick bite [mayoclinic.org].
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday November 19 2019, @09:52PM (1 child)
This was already posted -- d'ough.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday November 20 2019, @12:25AM
meh, your source was better than mine. :)
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 20 2019, @09:45AM
What's in a food and what the food touches when you handle it are two different things. Look at the gluten labels. There's the label for whats in the food and often a label for how the food was handled. When you're in a public place, there's the assumption that whatever you're getting may have contacted anything else which gets sold there.
If it really matters to you, then you ask before you purchase, just like everyone with severe health issues does. I'm glad us GF people aren't as stupid as this person.