There has been an awful lot of media coverage about the Beyond Burger meatless burger. It’s sad that they even call it a burger; it’s a vegetable patty. In my opinion, the term “burger” is reserved for something with real meat. I understand that restaurants want to have a vegetarian alternative for the 15 other types of burgers they offer. But when Hardee’s and Burger King jumped in, they cornered the available product inventory so other sandwich chains couldn’t get it. According to Former McDonald’s CEO Ed Rensi, who now works for FAT brands, “It’s impossible for them to get the product because is all going to Burger King.”
Rensi also said that he is upset about “food fraud” in the U.S. He believes meatless alternatives shouldn’t be called meat. “Why not call Impossible Burger for what it really is? It’s a plant-based protein that’s been altered by a science to mimic a product that you can buy for 25 percent less and has more nutrition, and by the way has significant less salt,” he said in a Fox interview.
It’s ironic that the company went public so fast. Their initial stock offering price was $25 and quickly went to $150 per share. I’m kind of surprised that they even went public if it’s that good of a business plan. They haven’t even turned a profit yet; this is going to be a quick deal for someone.
I was reading The Economist last week and noticed one of their feature stories was about alternative meat products in the EU. The European Parliament’s agriculture committee voted to prohibit the terms “burger,” “sausage,” “scallop,” and “steak” to describe products that do not contain any meat. This was apparently inspired by the European Court of Justice’s decision to ban the use of milk, butter, and cream for labeling non-dairy products. Then they got into some linguistics debate about words. Like the term “digital” should be limited to the number of fingers you have on your hands. Today it’s a simple electronic binary calculation.
The Europeans are extremely picky about what they eat and have set somewhat of a precedence for the U.S. meat industries’ strategy about enforcing clear labeling on meat-like products. As we already know, the dairy industry was asleep at the wheel when the barage of milk-like products hit the market and took market share away from the fledging dairy industry.
So how is this meatless burger thing going to play out? Is it a fad or what? The marketing of the product doesn’t really seem to evolve around flavor or nutrition or vegetarianism. I’ve tried the product and it’s not repulsive; it’s a little different from a ground beef patty. If you’re a staunch vegan I can see its benefits. I would also call it an acquired taste.
Our local Safeway grocery store has been featuring burgers for quite some time. They have about a four-foot section in the meat case with all kinds of burgers: Kobe beef, bison, brisket, Certified Angus Beef, turkey and quite a few other choices. However, they also have the Beyond Burgers and Impossible Burger in the same meat case, and those alternative burgers are marked as a meat sale. They are marketing alternative burgers with all the other meat burgers. You really must pay attention to what you’re buying.
The impostor burger, I mean Impossible Burger, sells for $12 a pound, which would be a stumbling block for most folks who would want to even try the product. Then, if you’re nutritionally minded, you would read the label and find that the salt content is off the chart. Your cardiologist would put the hammer down on that alone, 380 grams.
Then, when it comes to fat, it still has no big advantages. A 4-ounce patty has 270 calories of which 170 come from fat. It does contain 20 percent protein which mostly comes from legumes. The idea, as it reads on the package, is that “We started with the simple question: Why do you need an animal to create meat? Why can’t you build meat directly from plants? It turns out you can, so we did. Our plant-based meat allows you to eat more, not less of the traditional dishes you love while feeling great about the health, sustainability and animal welfare benefits of plant protein. Together we can bring exciting change to the planet, and beyond.”
I suppose we’ll see soon enough if this new gastronomic fad grows beyond a couple points of lost market share for the meat industry. We certainly can’t give them free run on marketing claims and the health, safety and honesty of their products, which should be classified as produce, not meat. —PETE CROW
