Looming over the United States is a meat shortage, adding to the seemingly never ending domino effect of coronavirus. Despite the gravity of the news, the fanciful side of me started to ponder about meat alternatives. Take the classic American burger. There are seemingly endless alternatives of the burger patty - tofu, bean, mushroom, lentil, quinoa, and assorted veggies. In the last ten years, companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Burger have emerged with a new tier of faux meat: the scientifically designed plant-based burger. I wondered, “how closely can these food scientists imitate meat?”
First, let’s start with what they have already accomplished. The Impossible Burger can be found in several restaurants. With its crispy brown exterior, it looks just like a beef patty. Sinking your teeth into the burger, tasty rivulets of meaty juices bleed true, reminding you why you enjoy burgers to begin with.
Why does the Impossible Burger taste like meat?
Unlike bean or tofu burgers, the Impossible Burger was designed at the molecular level to imitate meat. I’ve enjoyed the Impossible Burger before, and, hidden underneath the burger bun, American cheese, lettuce and tomato, it fooled me. How is this possible? The answer is a molecule named heme.
You might recognize the word heme from hemoglobin, the red protein that carries oxygen throughout our bloodstream. In fact, the metallic taste of blood is due to the iron-carrying heme molecules bonded to hemoglobin, not the blood cells themselves. Heme, which is highly abundant in animal protein and makes it pink, catalyzes the production of meaty flavors when meat is cooked. Even plants like legumes naturally produce heme. To create the Impossible Burger, scientists extracted the DNA from soybeans that codes for leghemoglobin (contains a heme subunit) and inserted it into yeast. Mass producing heme from an army of yeast in a lab is far more cost-efficient and friendly to the environment than farming soybean plants.
In addition to heme, the Impossible burger also contains (1) proteins from soy and potatoes, (2) fats from coconut and sunflower oil, (3) binders and carbohydrates that hold the meat together, (4) and vitamins.
For more information, click here to explore Impossible Foods’ website!
The Lab-Meat Frontier: Sci-Fi Chicken Nuggets
If you enjoy meat but abstain for environmental or ethical reasons, there may be a loophole in the near future. Scientists have been able to grow chicken nuggets in the lab. Imagine a swab of stem cells extracted from a chicken and placed on a petri dish. Like doting plant moms, scientists then cultivate the stem cells with essential nutrients such as amino acids. Soon, the stem cells replicate and convert, or differentiate, into muscle cells. The cells continue to multiply into a nugget of 100% living chicken muscle.
You could debate whether it should be considered a meat alternative, or from a philosophical standpoint, whether it is truly meat at all. Chew on that.
The Silver Lining of the Meat Shortage
While the meat shortage is jarring, we do have an opportunity to broaden our culinary horizons in pescetarian, vegetarian, and vegan cuisine. Reducing meat consumption can be easy, healthy, cheaper, and environmentally-friendly. I live near a major body of water, and fresh seafood is a delicious commodity right in my backyard. In addition, endless vegetarian and vegan recipes fill the internet (my go-to recipe finder is the New York Times Cooking app). I hope you find meal time inspiration trying different alternatives to meat- whether they be from the sea, the field, or the lab. I am sure there are kids out there who wish scientists could genetically engineer chicken nuggets to grow on trees.
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