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Science

The Impossible Whopper is Coming To Every Burger King in America Next Week (cnn.com) 245

Burger King will start selling its meatless Whopper across the United States on August 8, the biggest rollout for Impossible's plant-based product. From a report: 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. The Impossible Whopper has been performing well, Chris Finazzo, Burger King's president for the Americas, told CNN Business.
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The Impossible Whopper is Coming To Every Burger King in America Next Week

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  • by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Thursday August 01, 2019 @03:25PM (#59024314)

    The IB has 16 times the amount of sodium than a real one.

    It also had much more saturated fat than a normal one but the new 2019 version has less coconut oil than before.

    Still has the GMO of the soy leghemoglobin and soy protein, which might be a problem for some.

    https://www.healthline.com/nut... [healthline.com]

    • by Waffle Iron ( 339739 ) on Thursday August 01, 2019 @03:39PM (#59024412)

      The IB has 16 times the amount of sodium than a real one.

      Are you talking about just the patty?

      According to bk.com, the Impossible Whopper has 1080mg sodium, while the normal Whopper has 980mg.

      • Holy crap! A whole gram of sodium??? 2g of sodium translates into to ~5g of table salt.

        So about 2.5g of salt in a single burger? Wow, that's a lot. About a half a tsp.

        • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday August 01, 2019 @04:17PM (#59024688)

          Seems legit. Probably about the same as what goes into it if you make it all yourself. By the time you generously salt the patty to bring out the flavour while grilling, to the salt you add to your home made bbq sauce, hell a single slice of cheddar has close to 200mg of sodium, and no decent burger is made with a single slice of cheese, and you can repeat the previous sentence for bacon.

          • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

            I replied with something along the same lines then it occured to me he might actually be using regular table salt instead of sea/Kosher salt/Himalayan salt. That regular cheap iodized sodium chloride is much more harsh and you have to use substantially less. With that stuff food very nearly goes directly from bland to oversalted.

        • Wow, that's a lot. About a half a tsp.

          Uh, yes. For one serving of just an entree, that is in fact, a hell of a lot of salt.

          • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

            One serving of just a burger is about 1/2lb of beef plus a slice of cheese and possibly a couple strips of bacon, not to mention the veg. 1/2 tsp is sea salt seems about right. The cheese alone will be 20%.

            Salting is not a preference. If it tastes salty it is too much, if you could add more and still not taste salt you probably haven't added enough (though there is a window). Just like adding salt to water allows it to conduct electricity, adding salt to food allows you taste the flavors in it. You don't st

          • by suutar ( 1860506 )

            I'm not sure I'd call 1/3 of a typical day's calories "just an entree".. but then again it's about 1/2 of a day's typical recommended sodium, so...

        • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Holy crap! A whole gram of sodium??? 2g of sodium translates into to ~5g of table salt.

          So about 2.5g of salt in a single burger? Wow, that's a lot. About a half a tsp.

          That's about right.

          And yes, it's why the average person consumes about 2-3 times the daily recommended amount of sodium (2000mg). That pizza you had for dinner - unless you had one relatively small slice (ha, ha), you would've easily consumed twice the amount of sodium in that one meal.

          There's salt everywhere. Processed foods are exceptionally

          • There's salt everywhere.

            I detect zero salt in my whiskey. That's why it's so healthy.

            But seriously, as far as I can tell the impossible burgers are no healthier than regular ones. They're just a bit better for the environment. Taste-wise, I was pretty impressed the two times I had it. And I don't eat burgers for my heath, so I'm not super worried that they're unhealthy. That's why they're a once every month or two meal for me, and not a daily or weekly one.

        • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

          "Wow, that's a lot. About a half a tsp."

          Actually that sounds just about right for a reasonable size burger (aprox 1/2 pound) plus the other toppings at least it would be with real meat. You must eat/serve bland food or be used to tiny burgers. Remember you need to use a generous amount of salt and let it hang out a bit on the meat to transport the ions throughout the meat just like steak.

          Seasoning is actually quite easy, for any food that isn't supposed to be salty for specific reasons (bacon, popcorn, crac

        • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

          Holy crap! A whole gram of sodium??? 2g of sodium translates into to ~5g of table salt.

          So about 2.5g of salt in a single burger? Wow, that's a lot. About a half a tsp.

          Actually it's over 6 grams of salt, and is almost 1.5 tsp. Yes, that's a lot of salt. You should not be eating that much salt in a DAY, much less in a single burger.

      • by e3m4n ( 947977 )

        Comparing impossible meat with real burger meat.. its higher in sodium. However its also pretty pricey. What if burger king is cutting it with some not so great alternatives to cut cost and thats why the math does not support what it should be if it was 100% IB? I wouldnt put anything past fast food places. For all I know its 20% indigestible parts.

        • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

          "However its also pretty pricey."

          At retail. Everything it is made with is a hell of a lot cheaper than beef (actual food aka protein is expensive). So I wouldn't be surprised if they were willing to take a cut on their insane margins for the kind of volume they can potentially push through burger king.

          Also, it is the first and only patty out there which actually takes like meat (not quite like a good burger but certainly passable on the fast food level). Giving people ready and cheap access to discover that

    • Something doesn't add up in the link you posted. The beef burger they are using for comparison isn't a beef Whopper.

      For example, according to BK the Whopper has 980 mg of sodium which is almost 3x as much as the IB.

      • by Smidge204 ( 605297 ) on Thursday August 01, 2019 @04:17PM (#59024684) Journal

        The Whopper sandwich is listed as 980mg (src [bk.com])
        The raw beef patty itself (4oz) is 75mg (per GP's source's sources [usda.gov] - though they don't link it as directly)

        The IB Whopper sandwich is 1078mg (src [bk.com])
        The raw IB patty itself (4oz) is 370mg (per GP's source's sources [impossiblefoods.com])

        So it's important to note two things:

        1) While the patty itself does contain almost five times the salt as a regular beef patty (90% lean) of the same mass, the Whopper sandwich as a whole contains only a little bit more. Clearly they reduced the sodium in other parts of the sandwich to compensate.

        2) GP's source, "Healthline.com," incorrectly (and inappropriately) listed everything only as % DV instead of including actual values. For 75mg to be 1% DV for sodium, then 100% DV would be 7500mg - which is three to five times higher than any authoritative body recommends and a little over double what the average American consumes.

        The veracity of Healthline.com is up for debate.
        =Smidge=

      • Most of that is *not* in the beef. A single slice of cheese has 200mg of sodium in it, a single slice of bacon 150mg, and let's not get started about the sauce.

    • by e3m4n ( 947977 )

      Thanks for the update. Im a meat lover but it does have me curious. The real question is how much will this cost. IB is pretty pricey if its the real deal and burger king is not mixing it with a knockoff to save costs. I would not put the cost cutting past a fast food franchise.

    • by noodler ( 724788 )

      The IB has 16 times the amount of sodium than a real one.

      Nope. You can't say that.

      The table you refer to expresses Sodium as a percentage of suggested daily intake.

      And the reference burger in that table is 90% lean. I can tell you for sure that almost no burger on earth is going to be 90% lean. This reference burger is some sort of super obscure health food burger, not a typical fast food burger.

      If you look up ( https://www.accessdata.fda.gov... [fda.gov] ) what this max daily intake figure is then you get to something like 2300mg.

      So, in the case of the of the IB tha

  • Wendys (Score:3, Interesting)

    by renegade600 ( 204461 ) on Thursday August 01, 2019 @03:40PM (#59024428)

    I hear that Wendy's bringing back the "Wheres the Beef" commercial. Me, I want the real thing. nice thick juicy beef burger with pickles, onions, lettuce, tomato mayo and the most important ingredient of all, bacon!

    • As demand ramps up, non-meat alternatives will become cheaper than meat. Being able to eat a burger without feeling guilty about how animals died for it and how big an environmental impact meat production has will resonate with people - the health benefits are just a bonus.
      • how big an environmental impact meat production has will resonate with people - the health benefits are just a bonus.

        This right here is the big thing, IMO. I love beef, and I'm no fan of the PETA crowd going on about how crabs are people too (I personally don't feel guilty at all about the basic killing of an animal for food thing), but like it or not the world is changing, and when it comes to the production & consumption of animal products, people are just going to have to accept that current production levels are less than desirable from a sustainability perspective.

        I'm not saying to never eat meat, but from an e

  • [Possible] Whopper [bk.com]
    Impossible Whopper [bk.com]

    It's not much better nutritionally.

    • by Ogive17 ( 691899 ) on Thursday August 01, 2019 @03:43PM (#59024458)
      Well - I'm not sure health conscience people will visit fast food all that often. Their goal seems not to create a healthy burger, just one not made with meat.
      • Well - I'm not sure health conscience people will visit fast food all that often. Their goal seems not to create a healthy burger, just one not made with meat.

        No. Their goal is to have something on the menu for that one family member who won't eat meat. That gets the whole family in the door.

        • Well - I'm not sure health conscience people will visit fast food all that often. Their goal seems not to create a healthy burger, just one not made with meat.

          No. Their goal is to have something on the menu for that one family member who won't eat meat. That gets the whole family in the door.

          And once we get the whole family in the doors... Then we turn the whole family into burgers? Am I missing a crucial step here? I'm so confused, I need a burger.

      • I'm a health-conscious person, and I eat meat.

  • Plant food (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It all starts with plant based proteins. Like that snot they ate in the Matrix.

    Does anyone really believe Dozer got that big by eating snot? No you don't. He ate people. Gooey liquidy people. Former vegans and socialists.

  • Two buns and you wish you had some meat.
  • by harvey the nerd ( 582806 ) on Thursday August 01, 2019 @03:50PM (#59024510)
    About 10 years ago, 99 cent Whoppers were offered in a number of the participating Burger Kings for a year or two, but not all locations. Travelling down one street in a big city, at different Burger Kings one would have 99 cent Whoppers, next 2 for $3 ($1.50) and then next one, $1.99. All in 2-3 miles.

    Flying in, then driving distances interstate in a rented car, I just loved to load up on 99 cent Whoppers then. In 2019, that's my Impossible Whopper (dream)!
    • I used to live off of their rodeo burgers.

      Two for $3 or one for $1 depending on time of the year.

      I was a very poor college student.

    • Install the BK app. Every now and then they run a $1 Whopper deal (there was even a 1 cent Whopper deal back in December). However I believe they're always limited 1 per app, so maybe not quite as lucrative as you are hoping for.

      • However I believe they're always limited 1 per app, so maybe not quite as lucrative as you are hoping for.

        Used smartphones are really cheap these days. Just get one as old as possible that can run the BK app.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I am not a huge fast-food guy but I do crave it from time-to-time.

      If I happen to be by a BK, I will order their off-menu veggie (Morningstar griller patty) burger to scratch that itch and I am always slightly amazed that it continues to be available.

      They have had that veggie patty available for years now and I guess they must be selling well enough to justify doubling down on another veggie-based patty.

      Good for them. Hope they sell well. I prefer veggie patties. I think they taste better than normal beef.

    • People who eat a lot of fast food hamburgers aren't health nuts anyway.

      Not really. There's a lot of people who can't eat meat for whatever reason (Ethical/Medical/Religious/Ecological/Other). These are people who suffer at fast food restaurants. Lack of options see. So by having this impossible burger it does give them a lot more options. Think for instance of all the Muslims who have to eat Halal food that BK might not have many options. The terrible fish burger and the veggie BK. Having this impossible burger gives them more choices and that's a good thing for their bottom l

  • Seriously, why is this on Slashdot's front page?
    • Two words: Impossible and Burger. No techie can resist such a challenge.
    • Neither the summery nor TFA mention it, but it is news if you're interested in biotech. The Impossible Burger isn't just another textured soy protein vege patty, it has a biotech component in that it contains heme derived from soybean root nodules produced by transgenic yeast. This isn't that terribly radical, a similar method has been used to obtain rennet for cheese production for years, but it is still of interest nonetheless because it is the first time this type of genetic engineering has been used i
      • by asylumx ( 881307 )
        Honestly, thanks for the info -- really wish any of that were actually present in either the summary or the article (or both preferably). This really does simply read like an ad for Burger King. There are lots of nationwide chain restaurants with locations near me that serve the "impossible" burger (notably Red Robin) so it's really hard to understand why Burger King doing it would be especially interesting.
  • I wonder how much of a premium they'll charge for this thing.
  • The vegans and other radicals have somehow convinced otherwise normal people that eating meat - something we've been doing for millions of years - is bad.

    Please explain how a genetically modified frankenfood is somehow better than a whole food like steak. Granted I'll never eat a whopper or big mac, because of the crap also on it- bread, lettuce, GMO tomatoes, ketchup - but why???
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by AikonMGB ( 1013995 )
      Because an animal didn't have to suffer to bring it to you, and because the net energy consumption is lower.
      • omg, another bleeding heart trying to inject human emotions into animals

        animals don't suffer - they are meant to either eat or be eaten.

        when they get too old/sick, even predators become prey

        my body is not designed to eat some chemical engineered frankenfood
        • omg, another bleeding heart trying to inject human emotions into animals

          Well that's kind of typical: ask a question then throw a shit fit when you don't like the answer.

          animals don't suffer

          Correction: throw a shit fit then start denying reality!

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Human are just animals, we get eaten sometimes... So by your logic humans are meant to be eaten and don't suffer when they are.

    • by Misagon ( 1135 )

      Vegetarians don't want to eat the Impossible burger patty anyway.
      It is too much like meat, and you could argue that it is not vegetarian anyway when it contains heme (from GMO microorganisms...)
      It is cooked together with beef and the mayo is still egg-based, which is also reason for vegans/vegetarians to avoid it.

      No, this is for the eco-conscious omnivore who realises that beef is a major cause of climate chance. (and only idiots deny that climate change is real)

      Here in Europe, Burger King used to have an e

    • GMO tomatoes

      If you're eating GMO tomatoes that's your fault because there aren't any on the market. You must be getting them from a lab illegally.

      Or you don't know much about something you have an opinion on.

  • How about an Impossible Whopper Jr?
  • I still prefer the Gardenburger to the Impossible thingy.

    For some reason, many restaurants are cutting the impossible burger patties way too thick. I'm wondering if that's to distinguish the fake from the real.

    • by Misagon ( 1135 )

      I read somewhere that Burger King is getting a special supply of Impossible Burgers that are shaped to the size and thickness of their meat-based Whopper patties.

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