b'the same way. We think itll make everything a lot more sustainable.In order to produce these products, both companies had to think outside of the box when it came to ingredients.The Impossible Burger mixes a few different proteins together: soy protein to get the chew right, potato protein for the form and texture, and heme, which is found in all meat products, to give it the flavour. To make the Impossible Burgers sizzle like meat, theyve included sunflower oil to create the fat.You have to look at protein produc-tion in different leaves and seeds to see what would help mimic the meat look and taste, Halla says. Weve learned that some of these crops are incredibly difficult to growthats why theres a lot of widescale corn, wheat and sorghum production. Theyre so robust.These protein-rich seeds are excellent to useinThe Impossible Burger gets its impossible taste from heme, a molecule JUST Egg, weve found that when we isolate the mungfull of iron that makes meat taste like meat. Meanwhile, JUST Egg gets its bean protein in a raw state, it behaves just like an egg pro- unique texture from mung beans, which scramble like real eggs.tein when you scramble it in a pan, Lazimy says. Unlike soy, mung bean has very little evidence of deforestation and it has low water use. WHAT IS HEME?But the real question we want to know Are theseThere are plenty of things that make its way into the Impossible plant-based proteins considered to be healthier than theirBurger, but the biggest question on everyones mind: how does it meat alter-egos? taste exactly like a beef burger?We do believe plant-based products are healthier, Lazimy says. Theres a lot of scientific background thatThe answer: heme. shows people have a difficult time digesting red meats.Heme is the secret ingredient to life on Earthits a molecule Our egg protein has zero cholesterol, unlike regular eggfull of iron, and its actually the molecule that grabs oxygen from products. With a plant-based diet, everything can still beyour lungs and carries it through your bloodstream. But more healthy and you still get all the nutrition you need, but ofimportantly, heme makes meat taste like meat. Its what our body course, a balanced diet is most important. yearns for and craves when you take a bite out of a juicy burger. Impossible Foods hasnt stopped trying to make theThe craving for meat is really a craving for heme and the iron and Impossible Burger healthierin January 2019, theyprotein it represents in the diet, says Pat Brown, founder and CEO released a new recipe for the burger that cut the sodiumat Impossible Foods.30% from the original recipe, as well as reducing the saturated fat by 40%.However, heme doesnt always appear in plants. So how does As we keep thinking of ways to improve theImpossible Foods create heme inside their plant-based burger? Impossible Burger, nutrition is on the top of our mind,They make plant-based heme by fermentation of genetically Halla says. Were constantly looking to make it healthier,engineered yeast.and thats what were hoping the Impossible Burger ver- They started by looking at a lot of different forms of protein, before sion 2.0 accomplishes. they identified soy leghemoglobin, which is a protein that contains Both companies truly believe that to feed the worldsheme. It can be found in its natural form, in the root modules of population by 2050, farmers, seed companies and foodnatural plants, or it can be created by fermentation, which is much companies need to work together to change our foodeasier to create and maintain in a lab.system. For them, plant-based proteins mean the future ofYeasts are used for making other proteins in certain kinds of beers agricultures value chain.and wines, so its something that people are used to, says Smita Change can be scary, Halla says. But there are hugeShankar, principal scientist at Impossible Foods. That DNA from opportunities in the space of plant-based proteins. If wethe soy leghemoglobin then helps the yeast make its own heme, can add more value back into the value chain, then wewhich gives the Impossible Burger its impossible flavour.can have a much more diverse and sustainable world. NOVEMBER 2019GERMINATION.CA 51'