Impossible burger illegal in Europe?! (2024)

FAQs

Impossible burger illegal in Europe?!? ›

The European Food Safety Authority has ruled that soy leghemoglobin, an additive in the Impossible Burger known as 'heme,' doesn't raise safety concerns at the proposed use and level of use, according to a filing.

Impossible products are sold in North America, Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand (Aotearoa). Impossible burgers launched in the UK in 2022, but these products do not contain the heme, as this ingredient has not yet been approved in the country.

With that definition in mind, some people do not regard the Impossible Burger as suitable for a vegan diet. The plant-based heme was tested on laboratory rats, and while Brown says every care was taken to make the trials humane, animal testing of any kind is explicitly a form of exploitation.

The Impossible Burger can be a sustainable alternative to regular burgers and does contain higher amounts of several important nutrients, including vitamin B12, folate, and thiamine (3, 4 , 5 ). However, the Impossible Burger contains more sodium than regular ground beef and is lower in some vitamins and minerals.

You can find Impossible™ products in the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Macau, New Zealand, Oman, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. Our mission is to feed the entire world with delicious meat made from plants, so we still have plenty of ground to cover.

Plant-based meat in Europe

Despite a downturn in US retail and foodservice revenues for the third quarter of 2023, Beyond Meat continues to perform in the UK and European markets, with many products that are unavailable in the US.

The Impossible Burger, a plant-based burger, has wheat protein, coconut oil and potato protein among its ingredients. But a molecule found in the root of soy plants is one key to giving the patty a red look that resembles raw beef.

U.S. consumers' doubts about the health of plant-based meat – fed partly by advertising from the meat industry – has been a consistent problem. The outgoing Beyond Burger contains 25 percent of the recommended daily intake of saturated fat, for example, and 17 percent of the recommended intake of sodium.

Now, Impossible Foods takes DNA from soybeans and inserts it into a genetically-engineered yeast, which is then fermented to produce heme. This means that Impossible Foods' heme is vegan, but it also means that, unlike many other plant-based brands on the market, its products are not GMO-free.

Redwood City, California-based Impossible sued Motif, a Boston-based spinoff of biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA. N) , opens new tab, last year. The lawsuit said the "Hemami" ingredient in Motif's burgers infringes Impossible patents related to a "beef replica" product that also uses a heme protein.

Do Impossible burgers have a lot of chemicals? ›

The new protein is a genetically modified protein from herbicide-tolerant soy. Consequently, this new Impossible Burger product can contain residues of glyphosate – the main ingredient of the herbicide used on genetically modified soy and a “probable carcinogen.”

While the burger is plant-based and avoids the cholesterol found in animal products, it does contain a variety of ingredients that can promote inflammation in the body. These include soy protein isolate, which is highly processed and can trigger an immune response in some individuals.

Impossible Beef,* Impossible Ground Sausage, and Impossible Sausage Links are Halal certified by the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA). Impossible Beef,* Impossible Ground Sausage, and Impossible Sausage Links are Kosher certified by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU).

The beef hormone controversy or beef hormone dispute is a disagreement over the use of growth hormones in beef production. In 1989, the European Communities banned the import of meat that contained artificial beef growth hormones, although they were approved for use in the United States.

Impossible Foods Inc. has made it past the first hurdle in a protracted process to sell its plant-based burger in the European Union, the world's biggest alternative-meat market.

LONDON — California-based Impossible Foods, the fastest-growing plant-based meat company in the U.S., is making its European debut in the United Kingdom this week with the launch of two of its latest products — Impossible “Chicken” Nuggets™ Made From Plants and Impossible Sausage Patties™ Made From Plants.

Bonjour, France, time to wake up and smell the plant-based meat! The Beyond Burger and Beyond Sausage are now available in 500 supermarkets across the country with Casino Group, the first major French retailer to sell Beyond Meat products.

“Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat as the only true meat alternatives in the category.” In recent quarters, Beyond has struggled. The company said it plans to make a steep reduction in operating costs in 2024 after reporting in February its seventh consecutive quarter of declining sales.

Learn more about all the Beyond Meat products here. You can find Beyond Meat products in over 190,000 grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, universities and beyond in over 80 countries worldwide! !