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The World’s First Kosher Cheeseburger Is Here
The Jewish Daily Forward ^ | May 22, 2018 | Shira Feder

Posted on 05/25/2018 2:44:15 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The trail-blazing Impossible Burger, the world’s only kosher cheeseburger, created sustainably, is now officially on the Orthodox Union’s kosher database registry.

The Impossible Burger entered development in 2011 and debuted in July 2016 at the fashionably erstwhile Chef David Chang’s Momofuku Nishi in Manhattan. It’s since won a 2017 Tasty Award and a 2018 Fabi Award from the National Restaurant Association - and it’s the only plant-based burger to ever have done so.

“Getting kosher certification is an important milestone,” said Impossible Foods CEO and Founder Dr. Patrick O. Brown. “We want the Impossible Burger to be ubiquitous, and that means it must be affordable and accessible to everyone — including people who have food restrictions for religious reasons.”

In Oakland, California, the magic happens on a 67,000-square-foot manufacturing facility which produces 500,000 pounds of plant-based meat per month. Rabbis from OU Kosher toured it earlier this year to make sure all ingredients, processes, and equipment used to make the Impossible Burger are compliant with kosher law.

Ingredients? No animal products whatsoever, just simple ingredients like water, wheat protein, potato protein and coconut oil. No slaughterhouses, no hormones, no cholesterol, no artificial flavors, no antibiotics and no guilt is involved in the making of these burgers. The Impossible Burger impossibly uses about 75% less water, generates about 87% fewer greenhouse gases, and requires around 95% less land than conventional ground beef from cows.

So what’s the secret ingredient? One word, two syllables: Heme. It’s what helps meat taste like meat. It’s what ties all the other flavors together when meat is cooking. Heme is found in practically everything we eat, but especially in animal tissues. Scientists at Impossible discovered its the abundance of heme in animal tissue that makes meat taste like meat.

So Impossible Foods developed a way to make heme, and thereby meat, by genetically engineering and fermenting yeast to produce a heme protein called soy leghemoglobin.

The heme you eat in your Impossible Burger is the same heme your ancestors ate with their freshly bloodied dead wild boar. Unlike the wild boar, this Impossible Burger is doing its part to save the planet. “I’m really excited to be able to announce that the Impossible Burger is now kosher. And because our meat is purely plant-based, for the first time we can all enjoy a delicious — and strictly kosher — cheeseburger,” said Impossible Foods’ Chief Science Officer Dr. David Lipman.

Even before the Impossible Burger got its kosher stamp, it was served in more than 1,500 restaurants across the United States and in Hong Kong. White Castle even added the the Impossible Slider to its menu recently. In 140 restaurants nationwide, bleary eyed stoners can accidentally order the plant burger and be shocked at how similar it tastes to the real thing.

Impossible Foods is a privately held company dedicated to reducing food’s environmental footprint with plant-based chow. It was founded in 2011 by Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., formerly a biochemistry professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Stanford University. Investors include Horizons Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, Google Ventures, UBS, Viking Global Investors, Temasek, Sailing Capital and Open Philanthropy Project.

So Impossible Foods has indeed done the impossible. There’s only one question that remains to be answered: what blessing do you say on a kosher plant-based cheeseburger? We’ll leave that to the rabbis.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food; Religion; Science
KEYWORDS: cheeseburger; impossibleburger; judaism; kosher; meat; vegans
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1 posted on 05/25/2018 2:44:15 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

>> And because our meat is purely plant-based,<<

Talk about cognitive dissonance.

By each and every definition MEAT cannot be PLANT-BASED. It is SIMULATED MEAT and the burger is a FAUX HAMBURGER.


2 posted on 05/25/2018 2:47:55 PM PDT by freedumb2003 (robert mueller is an unguided missile)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

So how does it taste? I think a freeper ought to take one for the team.


3 posted on 05/25/2018 2:48:11 PM PDT by lowbridge
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If it’s made out of plants it ain’t meat!


4 posted on 05/25/2018 2:50:03 PM PDT by kaktuskid
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If I see it in a local kosher market, I might try it if it’s not too expensive. Then I’ll report back to you!


5 posted on 05/25/2018 2:52:05 PM PDT by EinNYC
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I didn’t think Jews allowed milk products to be mixed with heated foods like a burger.


6 posted on 05/25/2018 2:54:33 PM PDT by CodeToad
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Gag me.


7 posted on 05/25/2018 2:56:44 PM PDT by Radix (Natural Born Citizens have Citizen parents)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

hint: its not really a cheeseburger


8 posted on 05/25/2018 2:57:47 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
no guilt is involved in the making of these burgers

The heme you eat in your Impossible Burger is the same heme your ancestors ate with their freshly bloodied dead wild boar. Unlike the wild boar, this Impossible Burger is doing its part to save the planet.


Annoying article.
9 posted on 05/25/2018 3:01:30 PM PDT by Rastus
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This has to taste awful.


10 posted on 05/25/2018 3:02:11 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Oy vey!

5.56mm


11 posted on 05/25/2018 3:04:24 PM PDT by M Kehoe (THIS SPACE FOR RENT)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Every commercial fake meat product I’ve tried has tasted like Hell. Just threw the last six of them in the garbage yesterday


12 posted on 05/25/2018 3:06:30 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ("Politicans aren't born, they're excreted." -Marcus Tillius Cicero (3 BCE))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
We just spent sixty bucks on six fake meat products. All six tasted like puke 🤮 and are in the garbage can now. We sure hope this new fake meat product is a whole lot better!!!?
13 posted on 05/25/2018 3:11:10 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ("Politicans aren't born, they're excreted." -Marcus Tillius Cicero (3 BCE))
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To: SJackson

Click The Pic

14 posted on 05/25/2018 3:15:46 PM PDT by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: freedumb2003

No kidding


15 posted on 05/25/2018 3:18:56 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

No thanks


16 posted on 05/25/2018 3:19:12 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: freedumb2003

Meat less wieners have been around for sometime.


17 posted on 05/25/2018 3:19:40 PM PDT by deport
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To: lowbridge
I think a freeper ought to take one for the team.

Let it be a female freeper. Sounds like the fakeburgers are made from soy.

18 posted on 05/25/2018 3:21:00 PM PDT by hellinahandcart
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To: freedumb2003
It's a transburger self identifying as meat. Don't be fooled even if is a cute little Thai burger.

There is an actual production method for turning plants into real beef, milk and leather. It's called a cow.

19 posted on 05/25/2018 3:26:47 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (I can't tell if we live in an Erostocracy (rule by sex) or an Eristocracy (rule by strife and chaos))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If I were Jewish, I think I’d rather just have the real burger without the cheese.


20 posted on 05/25/2018 3:30:03 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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