How Do The New Plant-Based Burgers Stack Up?

How Do the New Plant-Based Burgers Stack Up? In just two years, food technology has moved consumers from browsing for wan "veggie patties" in the frozen aisle to selecting fresh "plant-based burgers" sold next to the ground beef. Behind the scenes at the supermarket, giant battles are being waged: Meat producers are suing to have the words "meat" and "burger" restricted to their own products. Makers of meat alternatives like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are vying to capture the global fast-food market, as big players like Tyson and Perdue join the fray. Environmental and food scientists are insisting that we eat more plants and less processed food. Many vegetarians and vegans say the goal is to break the habit of eating meat, not feed it with surrogates. "I would still prefer to eat something that’s not lab-grown," said Isa Chandra Moskowitz, the chef at the vegan restaurant Modern Love in Omaha, where her own burger is the most popular dish on the menu.

The new refrigerator-case "meat" products already comprise one of the fastest-growing segments of the food industry. Some are proudly high-tech, assembled from an array of starches, fats, salts, sweeteners and synthetic umami-rich proteins. They are made possible by new technologies that, for example, whip coconut oil and cocoa butter into tiny globules of white fat that give the Beyond Burger the marbled appearance of ground beef. Others are resolutely simple, based on whole grains and vegetables, and reverse-engineered with ingredients like yeast extract and barley malt to be crustier, browner and juicier than their frozen veggie-burger predecessors. The Times restaurant critic Pete Wells, our cooking columnist Melissa Clark and I lined up both kinds of new vegan burgers for a blind tasting of six national brands. Though many people have already tasted these burgers in restaurants, we wanted to replicate the experience of a home cook. Each burger was seared with a teaspoon of canola oil in a hot skillet, and served in a potato bun.

We first tasted them plain, then loaded with our favorites among the classic toppings: ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, pickles and American cheese. Here are the results, on a rating scale of one to five stars. Maker Impossible Foods, Redwood City, Calif. Selling points Vegan, gluten-free. Price $8.99 for a 12-ounce package. Tasting notes "The most like a beef burger by far," was my first scribbled note. If you liked this post and you would certainly like to obtain additional facts pertaining to manufacturer of shiitake mushroom extract powder as Raw Material for food kindly browse through the internet site. Everyone liked its crisp edges, and Pete noted its "brawny flavor." My daughter was convinced it was a real ground beef patty, slipped in to confuse us. The only one of the six contenders that includes genetically modified ingredients, the Impossible Burger contains a compound (soy leghemoglobin) created and manufactured by the company from plant hemoglobins; it quite successfully replicates the "bloody" look and taste of a rare burger. Melissa deemed it "charred in a good way," but, like most plant-based burgers, it became rather dried out before we finished eating.

Ingredients Water, soy protein concentrate, coconut oil, sunflower oil, natural flavors, 2 percent or less of: potato protein, methylcellulose, yeast extract, cultured dextrose, food starch-modified, soy leghemoglobin, salt, soy protein isolate, mixed tocopherols (vitamin E), zinc gluconate, thiamine hydrochloride (vitamin B1), sodium ascorbate (vitamin C), niacin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin B12. Maker Beyond Meat, El Segundo, Calif. Selling points Vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, non-G.M.O. Price $5.99 for two four-ounce patties. Tasting notes The Beyond Burger was "juicy with a convincing texture," per Melissa, who also commended its "roundness, with lots of umami." Her daughter identified a faint but pleasing smoky flavor, reminiscent of barbecue-flavored potato chips. I liked its texture: crumbly but not dry, as a burger should be. This burger was the most visually similar to one made of ground beef, evenly marbled with white fat (made from coconut oil and cocoa butter) and oozing a bit of red juice, from beets. Over all, Pete said, a "real beefy" experience.

Ingredients Water, pea protein isolate, expeller-pressed canola oil, refined coconut oil, rice protein, natural flavors, cocoa butter, mung bean protein, methylcellulose, potato starch, apple extract, salt, potassium chloride, vinegar, lemon juice concentrate, sunflower lecithin, pomegranate fruit powder, beet juice extract (for color). Selling points Vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, non-G.M.O. Price $5.99 for two four-ounce patties. Tasting notes "Warm and spicy" with a "crisp exterior" according to Melissa, the Lightlife burger is a new offering from a company that has been making burgers and other meat substitutes from tempeh (a fermented soy product with a sturdier texture than tofu) for decades. That’s probably why it nailed the "firm and chewy texture" that I found a little bready, but "not worse than most fast-food burgers." "Pretty good when loaded up" was Pete’s final verdict. Ingredients Water, pea protein, expeller-pressed canola oil, modified cornstarch, modified cellulose, yeast extract, virgin coconut oil, sea salt, natural flavor, beet powder (for color), ascorbic acid (to promote color retention), onion extract, onion powder, garlic powder.