Burger King will offer a Whopper with a vegetarian patty from Impossible Foods.
Will the public be onboard with replacing meat?
Burger King will sell The Impossible Whopper, a version of the Whopper sandwich with a vegetarian patty from Impossible Foods and is planning to launch the new meatless Whoppers at their 7,200 locations staring at select restaurants in St. Louis before expanding to other parts of the United States.
Impossible Foods is a company from Silicon Valley that develops and makes vegetarian "meat". Impossible uses of heme from soybean and some yeast, which is an iron-rich protein that helps to give their meatless beef the taste of the real thing along with some other vegetarian ingredients.
Do meatless Whoppers have the same nutrients as the ones with real beef?
The Impossible burger has the same amount of protein as the regular Whopper, with 90 percent less cholesterol and 15 percent less fat.
It's not the first time that a major fast-food chain has started offering meatless burgers.
White Castle has also had a version of the Impossible burger patties in their slider. Another company called Beyond Meat has been providing meatless alternatives to restaurants such as Carl’s Jr. with pea protein and beet juice to help imitate the "juices" found in beef.
Fernando Machado, Burger King's CFO said that says that, customers and employees were not able to tell the difference between their meat and meatless Whoppers and the new one during testing. “People on my team who know the Whopper inside and out, they try it and they struggle to differentiate which one is which,” says Machado.
Would you give up beef from cows if the vegetarian alternative tasted exactly the same?
Photo: Burger King's two big boy burgers, the 'BK Quad Stacker' (L) with four beef patties, topped with bacon, cheese, sauce, lettuce, pickles, onions seen August 19, 2009, in Washington, DC. The 'BK Quad Stacker' weighs in with 1010 calories, 70 grams of fat, 30 mg of saturated fat, 3 grams trans fat, 210 mg cholesterol, 34 carbs, 6 grams sugar, 64 grams protein, and 1800 mg sodium. Burger King's 'Angry Triple Whopper' (R) with three beef patties, bacon, pepper jack cheese, Jalapeno peppers, 'Angry' onions, tomatoes, lettuce and 'Angry' sauce ngry Whopper' boasts 1360 calories, 91 grams of fat, 33 grams trans fat, 235 mg cholesterol, 59 grams of carbs, 13 grams sugar, 77 grams protein, and 1830 mg sodium, plus the 500 calorie French Fries. (Photo credit PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)