‘Beef-flavour’ plants raise US ranchers’ hackles

THE US Cattlemen’s Association is not happy. Ranchers’ ire has been aroused by a raft of new companies that claim to be able to produce the perfect burger – without using meat.

Earlier this year, the association took its case to the US department of agriculture, filing a 15-page petition demanding Washington produces an official definition of both “beef” and “meat”.

The targets of the petition are companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, which believe that science now enables vegetarians to enjoy the taste and texture of meat with a clear conscience.

Animals are not killed and the carbon footprint is far lower than in traditional farming. American cattlemen are not impressed, to put it mildly, with the relentless advance of the plant food industry.

“While at this time, alternative protein sources are not a direct threat to the beef industry, we do see improper labelling of these products as misleading,” the association’s policy and outreach director, Lia Biondo, said.

“Our goal is to head off the problem before it becomes a larger issue.”

The immediate threat to the traditional US food industry is “meat” derived from plants, which simulates the taste of the real thing.

But further down the track is what is known as “clean meat”.

Produced without animal slaughter, the meat is derived from a small number of stem cells and produced in a laboratory.

Impossible Foods was started by Patrick Brown, a former Stanford biochemistry professor who took an 18-month sabbatical in 2009 to carry out research on eliminating industrial animal agriculture.

His goal was to produce a burger that would appeal to vegetarians who had given up meat on moral grounds but still yearned for the taste of real thing.

The secret, he discovered, was creating “plant blood” from a molecule known as heme, which is found in animals and plants.

When the plant burger made with heme is slapped onto a grill, it turns from red to brown, like beef. It also tastes identical, Brown and his team of chefs, farmers and scientists say.

The rest of the ingredients include wheat, coconut oil and potatoes. His target market is not just vegetarians but hard-core meat eaters who he believes could be persuaded to try the plant-based alternative.

Beyond Meat was founded in 2009 by Ethan Brown. Endorsed by the Humane Society, its backers include Bill Gates. Its meatless burgers are not only sold in shops but served up by restaurant chains like TGI Fridays.

Nielsen data released last year showed that sales of plant-based food rose 8.1% over the previous year.