Burger King is teaming up with Impossible Foods again to test the manufacturer’s latest product, Impossible Sausage.
Similar to the Impossible Burger, which Burger King uses in the Impossible Whopper that the Miami-based quick-service chain rolled out nationwide last year, Impossible Sausage is a meatless product meant to resemble meat, but with much lower environmental impact.
Impossible Foods says its burger substitute uses 96% land, 87% less water and 89% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than beef.
It has not said how the impact of its pork substitute compares to real pork. Pork is widely regarded as having a much lower carbon footprint than beef.
However, unlike the beef substitute, which is nutritionally similar to beef, Impossible Sausage and its sister product, Impossible Pork, have substantially less fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and calories, more iron and around the same amount of protein as its meaty counterparts.
Both pork substitutes were launched at the International Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, in Las Vegas this week.
Burger King said Tuesday it would start testing an Impossible Croissan’wich in late January at participating restaurants in Savannah, Ga.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Montgomery, Ala.; Lansing Mich., and Springfield, Ill. The price of the sandwich will vary depending on the location, according to a public relations official representing Burger King.
The sandwich is meatless, but not vegan: The croissant is made with butter and the sandwich itself has eggs and melted cheese as well as Impossible Sausage.
Impossible Sausage is made mostly of water, soy protein concentrate, sunflower oil, coconut oil and the thickener and emulsifier methylcellulose. It also contains 2% or less of natural flavors, salt, yeast extract, spices, cane sugar, cultured dextrose, modified food starch, citric acid, soy leghemoglobin — a plant-based cousin of hemoglobin that makes the product appear to bleed and taste more meat-like — canola oil, mixed tocopherols (antioxidants such as vitamin E), soy protein isolate, zinc gluconate, and niacin, and vitamins B2, B6 and B12.
In a video on Impossible Foods’ web site explaining the new product, founder and CEO Pat Brown said his company’s mission is “to completely replace animals in foods by 2035.”
“Beef is popular around the world,” he said, “but in many cultures the most popular and familiar and common dishes use pork as the main source of meat, so for us to have an impact in those markets, pork is a necessity.”
Burger King operates more than 15,000 locations worldwide.
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