Burger King has released a new meat-free burger which it claims tastes “identical” to its traditional beef patty.
The Impossible Whopper, made in partnership with plant-based food startup Impossible Foods, is flame-grilled like its beef counterpart and served with the standard tomatoes, lettuce, mayonnaise, ketchup and onion.
However, the patty itself is made of Impossible Foods’ “magic” ingredient, heme – a protein cultivated from soybean roots which mimics the texture of meat and famously “bleeds” like beef.
Fernando Machado, Burger King’s chief marketing officer told the New York Times: “People on my team who know the Whopper inside and out, they try it and they struggle to differentiate which one is which.”
The burger was released on April 1, prompting speculation that the fast food chain’s big announcement was no more than an April Fools prank. But both Burger King and its Impossible partner took to social media to insist the news was true.
Referring to a post by their CFO David Lee, Impossible Foods tweeted: “David is our CFO. CFOs aren't known for their humor. So if he says its not a joke, it's definitely not a joke.”
Burger King is giving its meat-free creation a trial run in 59 restaurants in St. Louis, a town in the US state of Missouri. If this goes well, the burger will be made available in the rest of its 7,200 branches across the country, according to Mr Machado.
Chris Finazzo, president of Burger King North America, told CNN: “The chain has been looking into a way to introduce a plant-based burger to its menu for about a year” and hopes the new product will “give somebody who wants to eat a burger every day, but doesn't necessarily want to eat beef everyday, permission to come into the restaurants more frequently."
Burger King hasn’t yet announced plans to introduce the Impossible Whopper to its UK branches.
