LAB 019 - WHAT'S BEEF?
CHEAT SHEET
Make sure you come back to see the cheat sheet for this episode!
ABOUT THE EPISODE
Plant-based meat substitutes have come a long way since frozen veggie patties with big chunks of carrots and sharpie grill marks. Now, companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are making plant-based burgers that look, smell, taste and bleed like real meat. They sizzle, they bleed, and they have the texture of REAL meat!
In this Lab, we learn about what new ingredients are making these burgers more like real meat, and the scientific process of mass producing those ingredients using biology, genetics, and engineering.
ABOUT THE EXPERT
Our expert on this episode is Dr. Christina Agapakis. She is a biologist, writer, and artist interested in microbes and the future of biotechnology. She is currently creative director at Ginkgo Bioworks, an organism design company that is bringing biology to industrial engineering.
EXTRA TIDBITS & LINKS
One of the major special ingredients in plant based meat for the Impossible burger is heme. Heme is what give the impossible burger its meat-like taste. Heme can be found in soy in very small amounts. So scientists use a process called recombinant microbial technology to make A LOT more.
This technology has been used before! Back in the day insulin came from pig pancreas. Now, you can get insulin from bacteria and using this technology make more.
People have been obsessed with the new trend of plant based meat. All of the large fast food chains have come out with or are trying to develop plant based options for their menus. Most recently Burger King came out with their Impossible Whopper, made from Impossible Meat. We both have had the Impossible Whopper (a few times) and we LOVE it! it tastes JUST like meat! Zakiya has also tried the impossible meat at Qdoba and has officially started cooking it at home for herself!
Eating plant based is not just about diet for some people, its also about the environment. There is less energy required to make plant based meat than to feed and process animals for human consumption.
If you want to give plant based meat a try you can find Impossible Meat and Beyond Meat in your grocery store!