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Plant-Based Mince Now 29% Cheaper Than Beef at Tesco as Meat Prices Climb (vegconomist.com)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/climate@slrpnk.net
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[–] 101 points 6 months ago (23 children)

Honestly as long as it doesn't taste weird or have a strange texture I don't mind plant based meats

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  • [–] 57 points 6 months ago* (8 children)

    Impossible, at least to me, is functionally indistinguishable from a ground beef patty. Back when I was vegetarian and before I was vegan, I went to Burger King on lunch to try the Impossible Whopper. I wasn't fond of Burger King, but I was mostly curious enough to see what an Impossible Burger tasted like having had Beyond at home once (where Beyond is pretty easily distinguished from ground beef by its flavor).

    Walked in, walked out, took a bite in my car. Straight-up almost went back in and asked for a new one before realizing it wouldn't do any ethical good and that I didn't have the time. This was even after seeing that it was in the Impossible-branded wrapper. I decided to go there another time to "try the real one", and it was the same. I was dumbfounded; it was straight-up just a Whopper – having admittedly not eaten a BK burger in a few years at that point. (They also put mayo on it by default without telling you, so good job, BK.)

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  • [–] 31 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    I had the same experience. I couldn’t tell the difference at all. Wondered if a mistake had been made, but had the same experience the next time. And I’ve had enough people tell me that they can’t tell the difference.

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  • [–] 26 points 6 months ago

    Same! My introduction was that I ordered the "burger" at a gastropub that was a vegan restaurant (unbeknownst to me). It was delicious so I asked the bartender for another and he goes "another veggie burger?" and I said "No I had the meat burger" and he replied "we don't have a meat burger here". My mind was blown! And now I don't buy beef anymore lol

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  • [–] 11 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    This is actually why I prefer the Beyond to Impossible. Both command a premium, and the Impossible is so indistinguishable that it feels like a waste of money. The Beyond has a great taste, but is not exactly beef flavor. They smell like cat food to me before they're cooked, but I find myself craving the taste now and again because it is something unique.

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  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, that's super fair. Both have a place. Beyond is something different as a novelty if you already eat meat; I'd liken it to a non-vegan using agave over honey. For vegetarians/vegans, it's nice to have basically a 1:1 if you want it. Even for vegans and vegetarians, it's valid to prefer Beyond over that 1:1 replica. And for non-vegetarians trying to be more climate-conscious or a bit less unhealthy (Impossible is far from healthy – its saturated fat content, for example, is nearly as bad as ground beef's – but it's also less likely to give you colorectal etc. cancer), it's a reasonable choice.

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  • [–] 7 points 6 months ago

    There is absolutely a place for both products. Impossible did exactly what they set out to do in flavor and texture mimicry. It's the one I tried first as a meat eater and that's what got me to try Beyond and a few others.

    I hear the complaints about the fat and sodium in the products, and while it sounds less than ideal due a vegan or vegetarian diet, it doesn't sound that bad for an omnivore, especially one that eats less veg. The great thing about them being a manufactured product is both of those things can change through product development. I remember reading that Impossible went through numerous revisions to stand up to Burger King's conveyor belt grill system.

    I'm very excited for the future of these types of products.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    I feel like the thing is you can hide so much in something like a burger between sauces and other toppings and stuff that it's really the texture and protein that's doing the heavy lifting. Which by the way is no bad thing, if I can't tell the difference anyway then awesome.

    I'm sure we're quite a lot further away from having a "naked" cut of meat with minimal seasoning tasting like the real deal, but that also doesn't really matter either. I eat a handful of steaks a year and I probably won't have a veggie steak any time soon, but if 6-8 steaks a year is the only meat I'm still eating in a few years that's a huge step in the right direction

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  • [–] 17 points 6 months ago (5 children)

    The greatly increased sodium content is a concern for my household, though.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    Those are older recipes. Always read the ingredients tho.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago* (2 children)

    370 mg per 113 g serving, specifically described as the current recipe from their own site:

    https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018939274-What-are-the-nutrition-facts-for-Impossible-Beef-Meat-From-Plants

    That's about 5× as much sodium as beef.

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  • [–] 0 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    My statement was in general with these famous non-animal burgers. To see that, you need to see a trend line over changes over time.

    Some are holding onto more sodium. That's on them, but if you think you can do that math on how bad that sodium is vs the rest of the factors, good luck.

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  • [–] 0 points 6 months ago*

    impossible Burger's sodium levels haven't changed in at least four years:

    https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/impossible-and-beyond-how-healthy-are-these-meatless-burgers-2019081517448

    Oh wait, here's a source from six years ago, still 370 mg:

    https://nmrdn.com/the-impossible-truth-about-the-impossible-burger/

    Seven, still the same:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/10/23/an-impossible-burger-dissected/

    Apparently there was 30% more sodium at launch, and it was reduced to a whopping 370 mg around 2019:

    https://www.businessinsider.com/impossible-veggie-burger-cholesterol-meat-2019-1

    So the original formula had over 6× as much sodium as beef. Still very much room for improvement.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago*

    Same. I tried a Burger King when they had a deal where you could get the regular Whopper and the Beyond (or whatever brand it was, of plant-based meat) Whopper for the price of one, so I figured, taste test. The regular Whopper is your typical trashy fast food burger that is on the better side of decent, without being good. The mayonnaise and ketchup are a bit strong, but between the lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles, it's a well balanced sandwich. I'd like the burger to be thicker, but this is what's keeping it from being a good burger. So then the Beyond one. It tastes burnt, like the most important flavour to emulate was the "char-broiled" feature. Beyond the burnt flavour, it just tastes... bland. They could have seasoned it better, maybe.

    I want to believe in plant-based. Not because I want to be a vegan. But because IDGAF about whether it's animal-based or plant-based. I don't think most people should. I have a unique condition (bariatric surgery) where I actually need animal protein. So vegan stuff can't be my main thing, but I can have some of it. But for people who don't actually need animal protein? I wanna see that stuff succeed so much.

    Edit: Someone actually beat me to it, and the plant-meat BK uses is Impossible, not Beyond. Still, I disagree with that person — there was a pretty big difference between the two. Maybe Impossible has gotten better over the years?

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