Impossible Burger with vegetable blood derived from soy and GMO yeast? It is the new frontier of innovation in the stars and stripes, doped by the mega-investments of Bill Gates and Google Ventures.
Impossible Burger, vegan blood innovation
The flavor, appearance, iron and protein contents seem comparable to those typical of a red meat hamburger. But the pseudo-burger for vegans from US-based Impossible Foods is completely plant-based. The appearance of flesh, with bleeding worthy of a Quentin Tarantino movie, is the effect of heme.
Heme is a chemical complex that contains an iron atom and is the non-protein part of a number of proteins including hemoglobin, myoglobin, and cytochromes (the very ones that appear on blood test reports). And biochemist Patrick Brown, founder of Impossible Foods, has managed to reproduce it in vitro from soybean roots-GMO by definition, on the American continent-and a yeast that has itself undergone genetic manipulation.
Rare Veggie
L’
Impossible Burger
is now being served in about fifty venues, in the USA. It was celebrated the past few days at the CES exhibition (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, which for the first time hosted a tech area dedicated to food. Its latest version is
gluten free, in homage to the fashion in vogue
, cholesterol-free, with more protein and iron than the original prototype (2011).
Potato and soy protein, coconut and sunflower oil, a mix of flavorings. This is the basis of the mixture, which is nonetheless distinguished by heme, naturally occurring in meats and as well–in minimal amounts–in soybean roots. Brown resorted to genetic engineering to insert the soybean heme gene into a yeast, and thus produced ‘plant blood.’ (1) Vegan maybe (2), pulp definitely,‘natural‘ certainly not.
FDA’s green light
The ‘plant blood’ developed by Brown, a professor of biochemistry at Stanford University, has caused much discussion in the US. Not so much for the use of genetically modified yeast, with the insertion of a soybean gene. Such practices are also widely used in Europe, for example in the production of Belgian beers. And GMO regulations, even in the EU, exclude microorganisms from their scope. (3)
Raising fears and controversy was instead equating plant heme with animal heme in promoting the occurrence of colon cancer. The founder of the Impossible Foods dismissed the allegations as nonsense, however, pressing for FDA protection (Food and Drug Administration).
I
novel foods
in the U.S.
– unlike in Europe
– can be placed on the market without prior approval. GRAS certification is sufficient (
Generally Recognized as Safe
), issued by a
panel
of experts to attest that a new ingredient or food additive is safe for health. (4)
Obtained GRAS certificate in 2014, however, biochemist Brown insisted on seeking an FDA ruling, filing many reports, including a study in which guinea pigs were fed large amounts of heme for 28 days. In July 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration thus cleared the new ingredient.
A driving force for the start-up
Silicon Valley,
Whose founder has no doubts. He wants to replace ground meat with his ‘biosynthetic’ mash, which would reduce land consumption by 95 percent and water consumption by 75 percent.
Marta Strinati and Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) See report conducted in 2016 by
Business Insider
at the Impossible Foods plant.
(2)
We asked our friend Paola Cane, director of the Observatory, about this.
VeganOK
. Which confirms that the most stringent specifications for products intended for a vegan diet (e.g., VeganOK, BioAgriCert) exclude the possibility of using ingredients that contain or are derived from GMOs. Vegetarian and vegan products, moreover, still lack a harmonized European framework, due to culpable delay by the European Commission delegated to do so through reg. EU 1169/11.
See the article
https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/vegetariano-e-vegano-un-altro-bluff-da-bruxelles
.
(3) For further discussion, see our free ebook ‘
GMOs, the Big Scam‘.
(4) Pursuant to the reg. EU 2015/2283, in Europe:
– ‘novel foods should only be authorized and used if they meet the criteria set forth in this regulation. Novel foods should be safe, and if their safety cannot be assessed and scientific uncertainty persists, the precautionary principle can be applied‘ (Recital 20),
– ‘novel foods should not be placed on the market or used in food for human consumption unless they are included in a Union list of novel foods authorized to be placed on the Union market‘ (Recital 21).
For the definition of Novel food, or novel food, reference is made to the provisions of reg. EU 2015/2283, Article 3.2.a.
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
