Want to go vegan but can’t imagine giving up meat? Thanks to new technology, you can experience the juicy satisfaction of eating a burger without putting any animals in danger. There are many non-meat meat alternatives on the market from black beans burgers, experimental lab grown meat, and the Impossible Burger. According to their website, “Impossible Burger production uses a small fraction of the land and water resources and emits vastly fewer greenhouse gas emissions.”The USGS states that making one 1/4 pounder hamburger patty requires 150 gallons of water. In comparison, the Impossible Burger uses 75 percent less water than a “real” burger, as reported by Eat This, Not That! According to Impossible Foods, “the Impossible Burger is made mostly of water and plant proteins with heme.” They explain that “heme is what makes meat taste like meat.” However, the Impossible Burg- er is completely vegan, so the heme they use is a plant-based soy leghemoglobin.

However, PETA, a popular vegan advocacy organization, does not believe the Impossible Burger is vegan. Despite not containing any animal products, this product may be considered unethical by some vegans. “That’s right, Impossible Foods, the maker of the Impossible Burger, decided voluntarily to test one of its burger ingredients–soy leghemoglobin–by feeding it to a total of 188 rats,” PETA claims.They also claim that the rats were killed and cut open after the experiment. Many vegans are against animal testing on cosmetics, cleaning chemicals, and other products, so the Impossible Burger is not on every vegan’s nice list. Despite this complication, making the Impossible Burger part of the mainstream may be a step in the right direction to reduce the meat consumption of the average American.

We decided to put the Impossible Burger to the test and see if meat eaters could tell the difference between a traditional hamburger and the Impossible Burger without knowing which was which.

The Results