Plant Based Burgers

Veggie burgers have long been a staple in the diet of vegetarians and health-conscious eaters, but now a new type of veggie burger is making its debut into some of the most popular fast food chains. These “Impossible Burgers” are still plant-based burgers, but they are attempting to mimic a traditional meat patty. Burger King began selling a meatless burger called the “Impossible Whopper” on August 8th in over 7,000 locations across the United States. This meat-free patty contains 15% less fat and 90% less cholesterol than Burger King’s traditional whopper patty. It also only costs a dollar more. 

Burger King claims the patties are made from plants, and they buy them from Impossible Foods. Also, White Castle offers an “Impossible Burger” sold to them by Impossible Foods, while Carl’s Jr. has a veggie burger on their menu made by a competitor of Impossible Foods called Beyond Meat. McDonald’s has followed suit with Beyond Meat and is testing their own veggie burger in Canada called the P.L.T., which simply stands for its ingredients, plant, lettuce, and tomato. 

Many customers eat these plant based burgers for their health benefits. Compared to an 80% lean beef burger with 280 calories and 9 grams of saturated fat, the Impossible Burger has 240 calories and 8 grams of saturated fat. The Beyond Burger has 250 calories and 6 grams of saturated fat. So calorie and fat wise, these plant-based burgers are not much different. For this reason, many customers have said they can’t taste much of a difference between these new burgers and traditional hamburgers. Another alternative here may be a turkey burger, which has  4-5 grams of saturated fat and 220-240 calories. Also a true grain-based veggie burger that isn’t attempting to mimic meat only has about 150-160 calories with 1 gram of saturated fat.

Almost across the board, sales have gone up because of these meatless burgers. Demand is high enough in some cases to cause a concern for supply. This situation will be interesting to follow and to see if the popularity of these burgers will grow some more.