In a public letter, the chief executive officer of Impossible Foods defended the company’s methods of producing a popular plant-based burger that is designed to mimic meat. The method includes genetically engineering algae to produce a soy protein, which the FDA has said could raise allergen concerns.
Explaining the path the company took, CEO and Founder Pat Brown said in the letter last week that the company had always sought to produce a plant product that was more sustainable than meat. “Our strategy was simple: invent a better way to transform plants into delicious, nutritious, safe, and affordable meat, fish, and dairy foods that consumers love. Then let consumers choose.” Its product, Impossible Burger, has been lauded by chefs.
But the company couldn’t produce a meat-like analogue without a molecule called heme, which “is what makes meat taste like meat,” Brown said. “Without heme, you can’t make meat that will satisfy the billions of people who love meat.”
To produce heme, which is present in every living organism, the company used “yeast cells, into which we introduced a plant gene encoding a protein called soy leghemoglobin that’s naturally found in the roots of soy plants. The heme in the Impossible Burger is atom-for-atom identical to the heme found in meat, fish, plants, and other foods.”
According to a recent article in the New York Times, Impossible Foods wanted the FDA to confirm that the ingredient is safe to eat. “But the agency has expressed concern that it has never been consumed by humans and may be an allergen, according to documents obtained under a Freedom of Information request by the ETC Group as well as other environmental and consumer organizations and shared with The New York Times.”
“The health and safety of our customers is our first priority,” Brown said in his letter. For that reason, the company began studying the substance four years ago and had three independent food-safety experts review it. “In 2014, this expert panel unanimously concluded based on all the evidence that the protein is generally recognized as safe (“GRAS”) for human consumption.”
The company then sought an opinion from the FDA, “because we recognize and respect the value of the FDA as guardian of the safety of the American food supply, one of the safest in the world.” It is now reviewing additional tests at the request of the FDA and expects to submit the data and a report to the agency, which in turn will release it to the public.